Nashville’s coach, John Hynes, stopped play in overtime to give the young Predators a chance at success with an extra player. Even though they haven’t been playing in the NHL for long, the Predators managed to keep their playoff chances alive. Cody Glass then scored an important winning goal for Nashville after just 3 and a half minutes of overtime. The final score was 3-2, with Nashville beating the Vegas Golden Knights.
“Normally, we have a lot of players and this gave us the chance to practice with four new players who hadn’t participated before. So it was just a good time for everybody to discuss different tactics together.”
Jonathan Marchessault had done something wrong which earned Nashville a power play in overtime. Then, Philip Tomasino scored with a shot that rebounded off Brayden McNabb to Jonathan Quick’s goal. Glass was very pleased after the win, he said “We’ll take that! I’m so happy it worked out like this!”
Tommy Novak scored two goals and helped get the winning goal. He has gained points in 46 different games he played with Nashville this season. Kevin Lankinen blocked 30 shots while playing.
The Predators are close to getting the second wild card spot in their Western Conference which is now held by Winnipeg, but Calgary is slightly ahead of them too. They will visit Winnipeg for a game on Saturday with only five more games left until the season ends.
Alex Pietrangelo scored two goals for Vegas, setting a personal record. Unfortunately, the Golden Knights’ two-game winning streak was broken after coming in with a three-point lead over the Los Angeles Kings. Quick kept the goal secure with 24 saves.
Pietrangelo said, “It probably wasn’t meant to happen. We only had a little bit of left, yet we worked really hard anyway. You can still be proud of the effort even though we didn’t get what we wanted. We won’t be too disappointed in ourselves.”
The Golden Knights were given a chance to win in regulation when Lankinen was given a penalty for delaying with 4:30 left. But Nashville’s goalie saved each shot giving his team the win.
The coach of the Golden Knights, Bruce Cassidy, said they had another failed chance to win the game due to their power play. Nashville’s Novak scored two goals in just 13 minutes; one six and a half minutes into the game with a backhand shot and then again during a power play from the left circle with a wrist shot off a deflection.
Lankinen made a bunch of saves during 1:46 of a 5-on-3 situation, including blocking a shot from Vegas defenseman Nicolas Hague from very close range just before the penalty was over.
Nashville was almost 3 – 0 up, with Egor Afanasyev scoring his first ever goal, but it was taken away because it looked like Tyson Barrie had ‘kicked’ the puck instead.
Alex Pietrangelo scored his 10th goal of the season from a deflection off the back of Predator’s Kevin Gravel at 6:00 in the second. This was his 8th two-goal game and also his first for this season. At 13:39, he evened up the score by shooting into the net on the far side.
PRIDE NIGHT
Before the match began, all Predators players wore special “Pride Night” sweaters while they were greeted with an introduction video when they stepped out onto the ice.
Both Hynes and Barrie said the Predators agreed on wearing special sweaters. Barrie added that he has close family members and friends who belong to the LGBTQ+ community, which is why he was frustrated about how difficult it can be for people to open up about their own identity.
The Vegas Golden Knights play the Los Angeles Kings in their city Thursday night. The Kings have had three games for the past four nights and those were all played in different cities. Meanwhile, the Nashville Predators host Carolina at home on Thursday night to complete their two-game homestand.
