The game headed into Nashville for game 3 with the series tied at 1-1.
The Ducks Ray Emery started in net whilst Bobby Ryan started a 2 game ban after treading on an opponent's skate in the last game.
The first 3 minutes started with both teams getting chances and both teams being physical. Emery pulled a couple of pad saves off from shots at the edge of the circles whilst pressure from Selanne in the Predators end didn't quite lead to a clear chance.
An early Anaheim powerplay was easily killed off by the Predators as both sets of players settled into the game.
It took a while for Anaheim to register a shot on goal but both teams plugged away without creating a clear cut chance.
The Predators went on their 1st powerplay at 6.52 with going for 2 minutes on a roughing call.
They took advantage of the man advantage with Erat skating infront of Emery to pick up a rebound an send it high above his shoulder. Erat picked the puck up off his own redirect which should have been cleared by Visnovsky.
38 seconds later the Predators took a 2-0 lead through Tootoo. Another defensive mistake infront of their own net allowed Tootoo to take the puck across infront of Emery. His shot crashed against the angle of post and bar but as he fell over and the puck bounced back on the ice he reacted quickest to slide the puck into a now open net.
The Predators heavily outshot the Ducks and started to dominate the 1st period as it went on.
They started the 2nd period with another powerplay chance only 22 seconds in with Getzlaf being called for slashing.
Nothing materialised in the 2 minutes and as the Ducks killed the powerplay they began to come back into the game with some good pressure in the Predators end, Rinne making a save after losing his stick, getting his big glove down on the puck to cover it.
Getzlaf tried to get his team going by dropping the gloves with Mike Fisher and this seemed to do the trick. O'Brien was called for an elbowing penalty and theDucks got themselves back into the game before the end of the period.
Selanne banged in 2 goals in 30 seconds. His 1st came on this powerplay at 18.10, Perry stealing the puck off a defenseman and setting him up infront of the net to fire home.
The 2nd at 18.40 came as a rebound off a long shot bounced from behind the net right to Selanne stood all alone outside the crease.
Less than a minute into 3rd Fowler had a brilliant chance to put the Ducks 3-2 up whilst the teams were 4 on 4, skating onto a funny bounce off the boards and trying to deke Rinne. The netminder stuck with him and got something on the puck to keep it out.
It was Nashville who got the 3-2 lead with Legwand scoring at 5.25. Suter fired the puck across the crease from the wing and Legwand controlled it with his leg and tucked it into the net from a couple of yards.
Anaheim were soon level again at 6.48, Belesky redirecting a slap shot from Saku Koivu into the net as he was sliding to the ice. The puck seemed to go in off of his body rather than his stick but Anaheim wouldn't have minded how it went in.
Nashville took a 4-3 lead at 10.21 with Fisher skating onto a Kostitsyn pass and wristing it in behind Emery.
With 5.16 left Nashville had a gorious chance to go 2 goals up, Kositsyn presented the puck as a Ducks defenceman fanned on a pass out the zone. He passed it into Legwand but Emery got infront of the puck and finally managed to cover it up after a few whacks at it from the Predators forward.
With 2.20 left in the period a dumped puck into the corner was chased by Koivu and a player of all his experience he got his stick into the arm of the Nashville defender and was called for hooking. This killed off any chance of the Ducks getting back into this game. There were a couple of shots in the final 20 seconds after they had killed off the powerplay but they couldn't find a way through and the game finished 4-3 to the Predators. Shots on goal were 37 - 16 in favour of the Predators and Anaheim need to take more shots in gam 4 if they are to wrestle home ice advantage back in this series.
Man of the match for me was Teemu Selanne, proving at 40 years old he still has the knack to get into position and put the puck into the net. I don't think there was a standout performance on the Predators to warrant man of the match as i think they played well as a team and was impressed. I said beforehand they would need scoringfrom Erat and Legwand on home ice and that was exactly what they got.
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