San Jose is 3-for-5 in this series alone.
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Of course another way for the Preds to even up the special teams deficit would be to score some man advantage goals of their own, as Nashville was 0 for 3 after going 1 for 2 on the power play in game one. The Predators have been emphasizing staying out of the penalty box all series, and it’s no different heading into Game 3.
The undersized former seventh-round pick who came into league known as “Little Joe” in comparison to teammate Jumbo Joe Thornton turned into the Big Pavelski when he became a core player in San Jose and is now simply known as the captain.
Did any of you expect the Preds to turtle when they fell behind?
After San Jose blew a one-goal lead earlier in the third, the top line delivered when it mattered most.
For the record, Friday’s announced attendance at Game 1 of the Sharks-Predators series was 17,026, which put it 536 short of SAP Center’s capacity.
“I thought their desperation level was just a little bit higher than ours in the second and in the third… and rightfully so”, Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said.
“The biggest variable”, said Tortora, “was that we didn’t know the schedule of the series until Wednesday night”.
Joe Thornton added an empty netter and the Preds replied with 3.6 seconds left.
Pekka Rinne made his fair share of exciting saves too.
They spent three consecutive games in California between the Ducks and the Sharks and it will good to be home.
Both teams tightened up on the penalties in this game, but Nashville couldn’t make the most of their improved attacking game, with Jones being a real stickler for them. Game 3 is Tuesday night in St. Louis. “But it’s Game 1 out of seven, so we’ll come back for Game 2”.
The Sharks, who won all three games in Los Angeles to close out the Kings in five games, now head out to Nashville with designs on wrapping this thing up quickly. It was his team-leading sixth of the postseason. The Sharks have a ton of firepower, and most everyone has gotten off to a nice start in this series. There has been no Sharks goalie pushed into the net deep into the third period of a tie game.
As much as we would like to talk about teamwork winning championships, this is the time of year when star players need to produce. “I’m assuming it’s a rule that they’re not allowed to change on our bench”.
The scoring did not get going until late in the second period, but there was plenty of great action beforehand. Nashville failed to scored on all three of their power-play chances. Brent Burns took the initial shot from the point and extended his playoff point streak to four games. The goalie couldn’t control the rebound, and Couture pounced on it for his fourth goal at 18:36. The Sharks are 1-6 in the last 7 meetings in Nashville.
Even when they did manage to get shots through the defense, Rinne was there to stop them. Nieto fired, but Rinne saved it. His rebound spilt over to the other side of the net, where Pavelski was lurking.
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Facing a worn out opponent in the opener of their Western Conference second-round playoff series, the San Jose Sharks kept applying pressure until the Nashville Predators finally wilted. That sloppiness was a primary reason Nashville generated 39 shots on goal to the Sharks’ 25, including 29 in the second and third periods. F Craig Smith (lower body) missed his third game of the playoffs and Eric Nystrom got the nod in his place.
