It marks the second time in four seasons both of the West’s second-round series have gone to a Game 7 after the eventual Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks ousted the Red Wings in 2013 and the Kings beat the Sharks. The Predators managed to re-tie game at 3-3 just a few minutes later when Colin Wilson somehow found himself all alone on the doorstep of Jones’ crease, as the Sharks’ Joel Ward and Brenden Dillon couldn’t sort out who should cover him. That could change in San Jose, where they face the Sharks in a Game 7. Pittsburgh prevailed in seven games that year along their way to winning the Stanley Cup.
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Viktor Arvidsson scored 2:03 into overtime, and the Nashville Predators forced a deciding seventh game for their second straight series by beating the San Jose Sharks 4-3 on Monday night. “We weren’t strong enough on the boards to get it out”. “I’m happy for Arvy”. The trio had been the Predators’ best line through five games. “It was nice to see it go in”.
While overtime might keep us up later than we would like, it’s always tough to turn away from the impending drama that will unfold. “It was really nice”. The play began after Brent Burns whipped it towards the net from the point, and Matt Nieto battled for the rebound. “He got some speed behind him in the neutral zone”.
The victor of Thursday’s game will play either the Dallas Stars or St. Louis Blues, who play Game 7 of their series Wednesday in Dallas. The travel and the fact we’re playing every other day since the playoffs started, this is really good for our group, we need that break.
Game 7 is Thursday night in San Jose.
“This is a good hockey team we’re playing, and I think we’re a good hockey team”, said DeBoer.
The Preds are 1-0 this year in Game 7’s in California.
Coming off a 5-1 thumping of Nashville in Game 5 on Saturday night, the Sharks notched two quick goals midway through the first period, courtesy of Chris Tierney.
The Predators outshot the Sharks 27-10 in the last two periods and overtime.
Harnessing that energy from the crowd and replicating that performance would likely push the Sharks into the Western Conference Final for the first time since 2011.
Tierney redirected a shot from Marc-Edouard Vlasic past Pekka Rinne at 9:55, a goal upheld on review to ensure Tierney’s stick was below the crossbar.
The third period saw the Sharks take the lead briefly on awful play by Rinne. At that point, San Jose had allowed only one shot on goal.
The Josi goal gave Nashville and Bridgestone Arena life again and from then on out it was all Nashville for the most part.
The Sharks didn’t have an answer in the second period for the Predators, who tied the game 85 seconds after the first intermission with Ryan Johansen’s first even strength goal of the series.
Josi intercepted a Braun clearing attempt, carried the puck into the slot and shoveled a shot toward the net.
Couture scored his sixth goal this postseason on the Sharks’ first man advantage of the game after Predators forward Miikka Salomaki caught Jones in the head with his stick.
Couture finished with 20:02 of ice time, and went 1-for-7 in the faceoff circle. Wilson easily flipped in the puck off a feed from James Neal. Only Jones making save after save forced the game to the second straight overtime in Nashville.
As we all know, the empty seats at SAP have been a trending topic this month, even if they have diminished somewhat the last couple of games.
Well, a better game than just a 12-minute game. “We just kept saying ‘let’s get through this game, ‘” Laviolette said, “‘and we’ve got two days'”.
Tierney got his second goal less than two minutes later.
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They didn’t, so now everything they’ve worked for all season comes down to one game. He went hard into the post late in the first period, knocking the net off of its moorings, and was slow to get up.
