- Colin White is out, but Rafaël Harvey-Pinard just hapens to be ready to return after last playing on February 10. Hopefully he wasn’t put in the lineup a few days before he should have been.
First period
- A good start for Montreal. I wondered if the Predators would just storm the gates to set the tone of this game.
- Montreal is quickly up to three shots in the opening two minutes. Really nice work.
- Kaiden Guhle goes down behind the net, then has to try to poke the puck while flat on the ice. It results in a tripping penalty.
- Nahsville’s power play is good, but not spectacular, so we’ll see how Montreal can defend this without Guhle available.
- Tanner Pearson gets caught napping and allows an open rush chance, but Jake Allen makes the stop.
- That was the most dangerous of the four shots they managed. A decent kill otherwise by the Habs.
- Josh Anderson lays a thunderous hit in the offensive zone. I hope all the scouts in attendance were paying attention at that moment.
- Neither team is able to generate much at the moment, which you would expect from a Nashville that has allowed three goals in the past three games, but is a notable feat for the Habs who’ve been doing that lately, in odd-numbered periods anyway.
- As I finished typing that last note, the Predators got two point-blank chances and nearly opened the scoring.
- Montreal’s fourth line comes very close to putting the puck in the net. A nice high-slot tip by RHP, and both Jesse Ylönen and Pearson bang away at the rebound.
- Newhook fires a shot off the post after walking right in between the circles
- Despite those good looks, it’s the Predators who get on the scoresheet first as Filip Forsberg gets his 40th.
- A decent period in which the Predators were just a bit better. The real test, as we’ve seen the last couple of games, comes next period.
Second period
- The top-line players aren’t really drawing opponents in before making passes like they were when they were red-hot A lot of low-percentage passes into traffic.
- Josh Anderson and Luke Schenn have a fight, making the first hard contact of the game fists hitting faces.
- Nashville’s top line is better at the puck movement tonight, with a sequence of short passes getting them gradually closer to the net before Gustav Nyquist scores.
- A momentary hand on a navy blue hip by Jordan Harris earns him two minutes in the box.
- Harris is freed after some in-tight chances for Nahsville.
- Meanwhile, the the officials have allowed two more obvious hold go on Suzuki and Harris since. It seems these officials want to see with win streak continue.
- At 9:57, Montreal gets its first shot. They just haven’t figured out how to play with the long change on this trip.
- Suzuki dances through three players, and finally one of the attempts to slow him down was deemed to be an infraction. There’s a chance to get back in this game.
- Slafkovský recognizes a short-handed break forming and sprints down the ice. He catche up to Yakov Trenin and makes a perfect pokecheck with the toe of his stick to the knock the puck away. That was one of his best plays as an NHLer.
- As we saw in the last two games, once the Habs figure out how to get the first shot on goal in the middle frame, more quickly follow.
- Newhook hows off his speed to go wide around a defenceman and get another great chance. He deserves to have at least one goal tonight.
- But the first goal goes to Brendan Gallagher on a shot from the high slot. He’s been getting a few goals from there recently. Jake Evans won a couple of 50/50 battles to keep that play alive.
- … And it’s tied! David Savard dumps the puck in off a stanchion just in front of the goal line and the puck bounces from a sharp angle into the net. That was a wild one.
- Also, shots are now even at 21 apiece after it was 21-10 midway through the period.
- Counting on the replay, I think Savard’s goal was a little under four seconds after the centre-ice faceoff following Gallagher’s.
Third period
- I hope the scouts saw Anderson pulling the puck around four different Preds players as well.
- Suzuki gets cross-checked from behind s he’s trying to get to the puck in the corner.
- The top line has been getting more time in the offensive zone since the game got to 2-0.
- A very nice play to turn against the flow created lots of space for a Newhook shot. This one doesn’t get through, but that line is doing very well.
- A nice job by Anderson to get back on a loose play and play it around the boards ad out of danger. His speed can work for defence as well if he wanted it to.
- Another excellent shift for the Newhook line, with a little help from Kaiden Guhle.
- It’s Nashville’s top line that scores again to break the tie. O’Reily has one corner of the ice to himself as Mike Matheson heads to the opposite side of the net to chase a covered man.
- Guhle takes a stick in the face and goes to the bench. The four officials weren’t watching the play … six feet away from where the puck was.
- The Predators knock the puck down with a high stick. All four officials make the high stick call. “Look, we are totally paying attention.”
- Joshua Roy whips a puck mid-stride, and Saros is not expecting it. We are tied at three
- It’s just the second time on this winning streak that the Predators have allowed three goals. Montreal has done that in five consecutive games now.
- Michael McCarron puts the puck in the net, but the Habs defenders think it was hit by a high stick
- Oddly, the four officials seemed to miss that one after their emphatic calls just minutes earlier.
- A video review corrects the call that the officials really should have made on the ice. That puck was about 78 inches in the air.
- The referees are forced to call a too-many men penalty with seven Predators in the play.
- “At the line Matheson couldn’t quite hold it.
- And we’re off to overtime for the third game in a row. Montreal takes another point off a very good team.
Overtime
- That was quick. A regroup to regain the line, and then Nick Suzuki ends it seconds after the penalty expired, from an angle almost as sharp as Savard’s goal.
- Nashville’s streak is no longer a winning one, but a point streak. Montreal is the first team to score four on them since Dallas grounded them from attending U2.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) Glass-mounted mic drop
2) Worth it
1) Who wouldn’t want to come play with these young guys?
