Ducks pull away late in third, tie series

Ducks win 6-3 and regain home ice. In a related story, Preds fans are hanging their heads and wondering, "wtf?" Stupid penalties, Rinne MIA, and an embarrasing third period all become huge factors in tying up the series with Anaheim 2-2.

I didn't put the headline that I wanted to. I wanted to put "Preds take a shit on the ice, series is tied." I restrained. This time.

Image taken from the pages of Nashville's third period game-plan.

Really, I love this team. I do. But they can be so frustrating sometimes. I don't even want to recap this game or the gory details. But here goes.

For the second time this series, the Nashville spotted Anaheim two goals within the first five minutes of the game. It's no strange coincidence that when something like that happens, the team tends to lose. Despite this, however, the game was actually close and exciting...until the third period. That was when the shit actually hit the fan.

Cam Fowler got the scoring started for the Ducks on a power play at 4:41 in the first period, which was shortly followed by another goal scored by Saku Koivu. The crowd lost a little bit of its edge, and the Predators were looking around wondering how this could happen again.

Fortunately, Patric Hornqvist bailed out Nasvhille 30 seconds later to cut the lead to a much more managable 2-1.

Nashville started the second trying to kill a penalty that Shea Weber committed as time was running out in the first. The Preds survived. At 5:44 in the second, Joel Ward tied the game up at 2-2 on a power play goal. Nashville was showing once again how good they are capable of being. In spite of the awful start, things were turning around and the game could actually be seized by the Preds. Incredible.

The Ducks pulled ahead yet again at 11:41 in the second with a power play goal by Teemu Selanne. Funny how one of the best teams in hockey at capitalizing on the power play makes you pay in the playoffs when you commit a bunch of stupid penalties.

 

Nashville still fought back and tied it up at 3-3 Matt Halischuck scored his first career playoff goal at 14:15 in the second. The crowd was alive and feeling it; the Predators had played far from their best game, but they were still in it with a great chance to win. All they needed was a solid third period to escape alive.

Too bad that didn't happen.

I don't even want to think about the third period. Nashville started out on a power play that carried over from the end of the second period. This would have been a good thing, if they didn't give up a shorthanded goal to Corey Perry at 1:41 in the third. Good lord, Nashville, could you possibly piss me off any more? I don't think you could.

Whoops. Spoke too soon.

Ryan Getzlaf and Brandon McMillan would go on to make the game look even uglier. 3-0 Anaheim in the third period. Our stud goalie, Rinne, got pulled and honestly looked a little lost out there at times (although he did have some solid stretches through the middle portion of the game and saved our asses from this game being way out of hand much, much earlier).This was just a crap game for Nashville, the best thing to do is to not dwell on it and just move on to the next one in Anaheim on Friday (8 PM). We have already proved that we can win there, and we're going to have to do it at least one more time. Let's just hope that the Preds have gotten all of the shit out of their system.