The Predators scored three-straight goals on Wednesday night, but it was the Vegas Golden Knights who ultimately prevailed in overtime in Nashville. The result gives the Preds a single point in the standings as their two-game win streak comes to an end.
Nashville was less than a second away from winning their third-straight contest, but Vegas tied the game just before the buzzer to end regulation, then Paul Stastny won it less than two minutes into overtime.
“We did a lot of good things, it came down to a half second at the end of the game and we didn’t finish it,” Preds Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “It seems like every mistake we made immediately turns into a scoring chance; they’re such a good transition team and they have high-end skill. I thought we did a pretty good job and we tightened it up as the game went on, but you’ve got to finish the game, and we didn’t do it.”
“It’s crazy that we played such a good game and we didn’t get rewarded with two points, but it is a big point,” Preds forward Matt Duchene said. “In the last three games, that’s five out of a possible six points, so we’ll keep pushing forward – we have a big back-to-back coming up – so we’ll be ready for it.”
Mark Stone gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead through the first 20 minutes, and Reilly Smith put the visitors up by two early in the second, but less than a minute later, the comeback began.
First, it was Mikael Granlund who took a feed in front from Roman Josi and directed it into the cage for his fourth of the season. Just minutes later, Ryan Ellis got crafty in the slot and deked around Malcolm Subban and found the back of the net to even the score at 2-2 through two periods.
Then, less than two minutes into the final frame, it was Granlund who laid a perfect pass to Duchene, and No. 95 ripped a laser into the twine to give Nashville their first lead of the night.
The Predators held it until the final second of regulation when Max Pacioretty tied the game, and then Vegas won it at the 1:52 mark of OT.
“It would’ve been nice to keep this little streak we had going, especially after the negative streak we had,” Ellis said. “It happens, and we’ve got to move past it. Obviously, we can learn from some of the mistakes, but we need to move past this as fast as we can.”
From here, the Preds head out on the road for two in Carolina and Florida, their first back-to-back situation of the season – and they’ll be eager to prove they deserve better than what they got on Wednesday.
“We have games in hand on everybody in our division right now, and teams have been really hot in our division, too,” Duchene said. “You’ve got to figure that it’s going to come back to the mid-point here soon, and that’s a big point for us. That’s six games in a row now that we’ve played really well, and to be 2-3-1 isn’t fair, but that’s the way it is. Maybe down the road we’re going to start winning games we don’t deserve. We just have to stick with it.”
Notes:
Kyle Turris and Yannick Weber were scratched for the Preds on Wednesday night.
The Predators will fly to North Carolina on Thanksgiving ahead of their meeting with the Hurricanes on Friday night. They’ll then travel to South Florida to take on the Panthers on Saturday before returning home to start the month of December.
