“We’re playing really well right now, so it’s a good situation and really big game for both teams”, Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne said of Game 4. He coined the term “The Colin Wilson witness protection program”, earlier this season when no one could seem to find Mr. Wilson. Burns ripped a point blast over Rinne for his fourth goal and 13th point in nine playoff matches. “To see these guys play as hard as they do for one another as their coaches, it’s a thrill”. Coach Lavy was not afraid to pull the trigger and rest a savvy vet for a rookie so Pontus Aberg made his National Hockey League debut in the Semifinals of the Western Conference Playoffs.
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Such as the brilliant goaltending of Pekka Rinne, who gave up a brutal goal to Brent Burns on the first shot he faced 3:08 into the game and then went into All-Star mode. “The bottom line is winning four, however long that takes and we have to be ready to do that”.
On the deciding goal, Fisher corralled a Mattias Ekhom rebound in front of the crease and curled it over the line at 11:12. Thornton fed Hertl with a cross-ice pass, but Hertl, in all alone, hit Rinne’s blocker with the point blank shot.
The Sharks thought they had the victor with 12:26 to go in overtime. Nashville captain Shea Weber, with 45 minutes, 16 seconds of ice time, went to the box with 2:03 left in the overtime period for high-sticking Sharks defenseman Paul Martin.
What we learned: These Predators are a confident group.
Trotz pointed to Letang’s absence in Game 4 as an opportunity Washington needed to exploit.
The Predators forced a Game 6 Thursday night with a 4-3 win in three overtimes. This is not the same Sharks team that gets pushed around in the Playoffs. Only time can tell.
That’s how chaotic Joe Pavelski’s apparent overtime marker was in the Sharks’ eventual 4-3 triple overtime defeat to the Predators in Game 4 of their second round series, which is now tied at two games apiece with Game 5 set for Saturday at SAP Center. Standing 6’7, the Sharks have found out that it is no easy task getting the puck by him, and the majority of their goals this series have come on the man-advantage and/or off a deflection or rebound. Who knows maybe the black cat in San Jose, named Joe Paw-velski, cursed the Preds.
From there, the game took on a life of its own, seeming to play the players as midnight morphed into 1 a.m. Seven defensemen logged more than 40 minutes of ice time, led by a staggering 49:42 for the Predators’ Roman Josi. Predators center Ryan Johansen hit the far post at 5:00, while the Sharks almost scored twice before Pavelski’s disallowed goal.
Neither team altered its lineup from Game 3, as Nashville’s Mike Ribeiro was again a healthy scratch.
Utica Comets coach Travis Green appears to be on the Anaheim Ducks’ list of candidates to replace Bruce Boudreau as the team’s bench boss.
The Sharks, who had the NHL’s best road record during the regular season and won their first three away from San Jose this postseason, lost Game 3 on Tuesday night. Nashville is going to have to keep that streak alive because losing Game 4 is not an option.
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GOAL! And with that, the Preds longest game in franchise history has ended as they beat the Sharks 4-3.
