The Predators were the prey in a 4-goal 3rd period from the Minnesota Wild.
I watched last night’s game on DVR starting around midnight. It was difficult to watch for most of the game as the Minnesota Wild they were reacting to the Nashville Predators were instead of reading, anticipating and playing their game.
Devan Dubnyk’s shutout streak ended in the first minute of the game when Ryan Johansen scored his 1st goal of the season when he shot from a very bad angle. It went just past Dubnyk’s stick, through the five-hole and off his right leg pad into the net. Dubnyk didn’t let that stop him from having a good game in the cage, although, he would allow 3 more goals in the game.
The Predators would go up 2-0 when a shot from the left point was deflected/blocked in front and eventually went back to Roman Josi at the left half-wall and with no hesitation, he shot it again and it got past Devan Dubnyk. There was a lot of bodies in front of Dubnyk and when the initial point shot came, he may have been interfered with or he just overslid to his left, then had to flip over on his belly and get up and try to see the next shot coming. It was actually Ryan Suter trying to clear the puck but it went right to Josi. Wild Head Coach, Bruce Boudreau, challenged the call asking the officials to look for Goalie Interference but the call would stand* as a good goal. 2-0, Nashville.
*More proof that nobody knows what Goalie Interference is. Boudreau in the postgame interview: “All I kept thinking was Stewart’s goal at the beginning of the year. The guy had 6 seconds and they called it back….I didn’t think he got a chance to get settled…You just never know how that thing’s going to go…”
The Predators went up 3-0 when they scored shorthanded after a Jason Zucker turnover at the offensive blue line gave Mattias Eckholm a breakaway and he put one past Duubs with a snapshot through the hole between his blocker arm and his right side with just over 7 minutes left in the 2nd period. My question is why isn’t a penalty called when Jason Zucker is tripped at the blue line? (1:18 mark of highlight video)
No call when Zucker is tripped? Is it because the Wild were already on a Power Play & coming off a 5-on-3, too? If yes, that’s wrong! A penalty is a penalty.
Down 3-0, the Wild really had to start bringing it. Coming back on any team is difficult but, the reigning Western Conference champion Nashville Predators on a 5-game winning streak, is much more difficult. The Wild were going to have to change how they were playing. They had to start being the aggressors and attack the Predators. That happened once Matt Dumba scored his 1st goal of the season on a slapper to the upper left corner off a faceoff win with 3:44 left in the 2nd period.
It’s amazing how much scoring goal can change the game and get a team going. It was a different #Wild team from that point on. Nino Niederreiter would score 42 seconds later but it was called off due to the puck going in the net off of Nino’s glove. No worries, though. Nino would score on the Power Play with 39 seconds left in the 2nd period to set up a huge 3rd period.
That huge 3rd period would start with Predators F Viktor Arvidsson scored 57 seconds in to give his team another 2-goal lead at 4-2. I’ll admit, at this point, my attention went to fantasy hockey and while I was looking at stats, trying not to see a final score, I saw a Nashville Predators player’s name and it said “@ MN, L 4-6” under it. I didn’t believe it but then I saw Eric Staal’s name and it said “vs NSH, W 6-4” so I knew the Wild had won but I kept trying to figure out how they were going to score 3 goals as the time kept trickling down.
The home team Wild kept the pressure on but, with the clock ticking, their chances of coming back seemed to be ticking away as well. This team, despite their rocky start to the season, has never shown any sense of giving up in any game and they weren’t about to give up in a game against a Central Division foe at home. They kept battling and were all over the Predators for the majority of the 3rd period.
Finally, they hit paydirt when Eric Staal hit Jared Spurgeon in the slot for a one-timer to get the Wild within 1 at 4-3 (the goal was changed to Ryan Suter after the game.) Apparently, Spurgeon’s shot went off of Ryan Suter and, more specifically, his butt. Ass Goal! Haha! Roughly 2 minutes after that (1:57), Eric Staal tied the game on THE POWER PLAY after Marcus Foligno tried to make a move in front of the net but appeared to mishandle the puck and #12 was Eric on the Spot and he put the puck into the empty net.
Again, roughly 2 minutes later (2:04), you can see (& hear) the crowd start to go wild as Mikko Koivu took the puck from the left half-wall into the corner and passed to Jason Zucker, who was surrounded by 3 defenders in front of the net and, knowing he wouldn’t be able to get a forehand shot off, he turned to his backhand and fired it past Pekka Rinne for a 5-4 Wild lead with 2:55 left in the 3rd period.
Jared Spurgeon added an empty-net goal with a 150-foot chip shot to seal the W, extend the Wild’s winning streak to 4 and snap Nashville’s winning streak at 5.
Just look at the Shot Summary Chart. The Wild only allowed 3 shots from the Predators after they scored in the first minute of the 3rd period. That’s 3 shots in 19 minutes and 3 seconds:
Hopefully, the Wild learned a lesson about playing their game instead of reacting to the opponent. Maybe they weren’t sure what to expect from the Preds and it took scoring 1 goal to get them going. They have to figure out how good they are as a team and do the right things from the first puck-drop. Get the puck deep, establish that forecheck and SHOOT THE PUCK!!! IT BELONGS IN THE NET!!! THAT’S IT’S HOME!!! IT’S NOT TOO GOOD FOR IT’S HOME!!!
NEVER TOUCH MY PUCK!!!! I’m sorry. I may have gotten a little carried away but, hey, don’t blame me! Blame that Wild Comeback!!!
THANKS for reading!!! #BeWild &…
