Thursday night the Nashville Predators' offense went to work, and they beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-1. With the win, Nashville stays in fourth place in the Western Conference and gets two points for a total of 58. Colorado stayed at 54 points and has eighth place in the West. Third periods seem to be exciting for Nashville as of late, and last night was no exception. Last night's game was also the second game in a row that the Predators have scored five times.
In the first period, Nashville opened up the scoring at just 03:15 when Sergi Kostitsyn beat goal tender Craig Anderson with a wrist shot. Cody Franson made it 2-0 with his sixth goal of the season at 16:37, and the period ended with Nashville having a bit of a cushion. Although there were many chances for both teams in the first, there was only a total of 17 shots on goal between the teams.
In the second, the numbers suggest that it was a rather dull period. In reality Colorado was building momentum, and had a great chance from Matt Duchene's shot that produced a rebound. Ryan Stoa found the rebound in front and tapped it toward the net. The call on the ice was no goal, and play continued. Play on the ice was stopped however for a review, and for some reason, Nashville got a break, and Colorado lost its momentum. Hoards of people on Twitter, all of the Colorado fans, and the Avalanche coaching staff thought that they had scored. The disappointment was devastating to Colorado.
In the third period, Nashville lit the lamp three times, and Colorado was able to squash Pekka Rinne's shout out bid. With his first goal of the season, Matt Halischuk scored his second NHL goal at 02:05, and he set the pace. Matt is going to fun to watch in the years to come, and I really hope that he is able to stay with Nashville. At 04:22 David Legwand got on the board to put the Predators up 4-0, and at 09:27 Colin Wilson got his twelfth goal of the season to make it 5-0. Matt Duchene lit the lamp for Colorado at 16:23, and the game ended with a 5-1 score.
Nashville's next game is in Edmonton, Alberta against the Oilers on Sunday night. With a couple of days off, they will have the opportunity to rest up, but may also get passed in the standings. Phoenix is only one point behind Nashville, and they will play LA on Saturday. Even though I am fond of the Coyotes, LA may be able to help Nashville out. For Friday night, the only game that affects Nashville will be Dallas at Calgary. Hopefully Calgary will get win in regulation. For Saturday, Boston visits Colorado and Anaheim visits Montreal for two East/West games. Nashville fans will pull for the East teams here to keep points out of the West. The other games scheduled for Friday and Saturday either don't affect us, or will simply continue to put pressure on the log jam in the West. On Sunday Nashville and Edmonton face off at 7:00PM, and the game will be broadcasted on FS-TN.
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