The Predators head out onto home ice knowing that a win would put them into the 2nd round for the first time in the clubs history. The Ducks hadn't played well defensively all series, although they had been scoring goals.
It was Anaheim who looked like they were going to take the 1st period 1-0 after Teemu Selanne scored his 6th goal in the series. He skated around the net and threw the puck near side with his back hand. Rinne couldn't stop it and the Ducks had the lead 10.22 in.
That was the way it stayed until 28 seconds from the end when a bad play along the boards allowed Tootoo the time to pick out Spalding infont of the goal and he wristed a shot past Emery.
The Ducks found themselves chasing the game after 3.28 of the second when Sullivan gave Nashville the lead. Again it was bad defending by Anaheim as they missed a simple chipped puck mid ice, Dumont crossed the blueline with both D going towards him and he just found Sullivan coming at speed who went in and around Emery to back hand it in.
They did get level towards the end of the period through Blake on the powerplay. It was Ryan who skated down the boards and fired the shot in towards the net and Blake who tipped it infront.
Nashville had their 2nd lead of the game early in the 3rd period tough when Spalding got his 2nd of the game. Great speed from Tootoo saw him going across infront of Emery. He poked checked the puck but couldn't do anything as Lilea crashed into him and Spalding picked up the loose puck and fired high past netminder and defender.
This time there was no way back for the Ducks. They had 1 further powerplay in the 3rd period that they couldn't make anything of and Koivu took a 2 minute minor for interference with 30 seconds left, meaning the Ducks had no advantage in pulling the netminder.
It was fitting that the 1st ever player draftet by the Nashville franchise was the one to fire in an empty net goal to seal the win 4-2. David Legwand firing it in from just over the red line.
The Predators deserved this series. They outbattled the Ducks and played well as a team. They have no stand out star player. They aren't the most finessed attacking team. They work hard and they take chances where they can. Different players took the step to be heroes where they could, not least in this game Spalding who got 2 goals.
All that said, if Anaheim had been able to defend it could have been the Ducks in the next round. They got plenty of scoring from their big players. Perry finished with 2+6, Selanne 6+1, Koivu 1+6 andGetzlaf 2+4. Heck Ryan and Blake both scored 3 a piece as well. Unfortuately Emery had a 3.20 GAA and a SP of less than 0.900%. That isn't going to get you into the 2nd round. You can't just lay the blame on Emery, the defence hung him to dry a few times by simply not clearing the zone. You cant help but feel though with a top end netminder, they could have won through this.
Lets not take anything away from Nashville though, its taken 12 years for them to make the 2nd round of the playoffs. They will now face the Redwings or Canucks. Whichever team they face, its going to be tougher for them and they will need to apply the same work ethic that has got them this far.
No comments:
Post a Comment