The Nashville Predators won their first ever Game 7 in franchise history, and are moving onto the second round of the NHL Playoffs starting Friday, April 29, 2016 to face the San Jose Sharks! Check out the recap below from the Predators Official Website, and check back here soon at Connect Music City for more updates soon!
For the first time since 2012, the Nashville Predators are going to the Second Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Preds went into Anaheim on Wednesday night in their first Game Seven in franchise history and beat the Ducks 2-1 to win their Western Conference Round One series 4-3. With the victory, the Preds will face the San Jose Sharks in Round Two, beginning on Friday night in California (9:30 p.m. CT, TV: NBCSN). Nashville will begin to worry about their next opponent soon, but the Game Seven triumph was something worth celebrating first.
“It’s a big step,” Head Coach Peter Laviolette, who is now 5-1 all-time in Game Sevens as a coach, said of the victory. “I feel that if you can’t take this one step, you can’t take any more steps. That makes it a really big win for our guys and for our team. When you’re faced with these situations, you’re either going home or continuing to fight for the Cup. It was a big night.”
Nashville got the ever-important first goal, when Colin Wilson made his way through the Ducks zone and got in alone on Frederik Andersen, where he deked and roofed a backhander past the Anaheim netminder for a 1-0 lead at 6:19. Then, Paul Gaustad got his stick on a Shea Weber point shot and deflected a puck into the cage for his first of the postseason and a 2-0 advantage at 15:53, a score that held steady through the end of the first frame.
A scoreless second period led into an Anaheim goal on the power play early in the third by Ryan Kesler to cut the Nashville lead to one. But from then on, goaltender Pekka Rinne and the Preds continued to deny the Ducks, with Rinne making 14 saves in the third period alone.
“He was really good,” Laviolette said of Rinne. “If you think that you need four wins to get out, and if you think about the four wins, you could consider him one of the best players on the ice. He was outstanding. He looked solid to me. He looked from the start tonight that he was right on top of his game.”
Source: Official Nashville Predators Website
Predators Conference Semifinals Schedule
Stay with us here at Connect Music City for updates on this series including results, guides to the area for those making a trip out to the games, and up to the minute social media updates!