Nashville gets two points over Minnesota in a very tight Western Conference and moves to 23-13-6 on the season with a 5-1 win. Mikko Koivu scored the lone goal for the Wild; for the Predators, David Legwand, Joel Ward, Nick Spaling, and Marcel Goc all turned the light on. Consistency has been key since the first of the year, and time will tell if the Predators can stay on track.
Minnesota came into this game looking to continue their road streak They ended up losing their first road game in a month, their second game in a row, and Jose Theodore left the Minnesota net half way through the third period with his stick between his legs. While the numbers might suggest an easy Predators win, I promise that it was no piece of cake. Nashville did score first with a goal from David Legwand at 07:03 of the first period, and Mikko Koivu tied the game up at 16:05. Both teams seemed to be very evenly matched, as the pre-game numbers suggested. The level of activity and speed of both teams was very impressive, and the first period ended with the teams tied.
The second period continued with multiple chances for both teams. Both continued to handle the puck well, and the period seemed like it was more of the same, even though Joel Ward broke the tie with the go ahead goal at 01:02. While I thought that the momentum may tilt after Ward's goal, Minnesota did not lose hope, and continued to be aggressive.
My prediction for the third period was that the game would come down to the final minute with the same score, and that the Wild would either score to tie, or die trying. I was wrong. At 04:18 Nick Spaling lit the lamp, unassisted. Nick Spaling? Nick Spaling. It was his third goal of the season. This goal really felt like Nick was flipping the puck in the zone to attempt a line change. When I saw the puck fly through the air from near the right point, the last thing I imagined is that he would score. He did. The puck slipped into the net on Theodore's right side like a mortar.
Shea Weber fired a shot from near the blue line, and got a rebound off Theodore to set up the most exciting goal of the game. With a crash of the net, the official signaled no goal as if he was screaming NO GOAL, he immediately signaled no goal again using the same emotion, and then Nick Spaling tipped the puck over the line, and the official signaled goal as if he was the most excited fan in the arena. He pointed to the net as if he was trying to chop the crossbar in half. Nick Spaling? Nick Spaling. The goal was his fourth of the season.
After Spaling's second goal of the night, the Minnesota coaching staff decided to make a change, and Anton Khubodin entered the game. At 12:53, the light was turned on for the last time as Marcel Goc put the Predators up 5-1. Marcel's goal was also unassisted. Khubodin stopped four of the five shots he faced, and tonight was his first game played on the NHL level this season after being recalled from Minnesota's AHL affiliate in Houston on January 8.
Nick Spaling was named the games first star, and while that will not be disputed by me at all, I first give props to the fans in Nashville. Attendance for tonight's game is officially 15,311. Attendance numbers are much more complicated than simply telling how many people showed up, and the staff came up with 15,311 because they added the number of tickets sold plus comp tickets. The number of people who actually walk through the doors can be drastically different; tonight it wasn't. I attended the last game that the Predators sold out (17,113), and there were large sections of empty seats in both the upper and lower bowls. As far as the lower bowl goes, I believe that not a single ticketed person failed to come to the game. The crowd looked great, and sounded even better.
The Predators travel to the Miami–Fort Lauderdale–Pompano Beach Metropolitan Area to take on the Florida Panthers on Thursday, and they will be looking for a seventh straight win. This East-West match up is sure to be fun, and the Predators return home to take on Chicago on Saturday.
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