Things seemed to be coming together quite nicely for the Predators early in the third period of Sunday’s playoff opener in Vancouver.
The Preds held a one-goal lead, were headed to the power play and looked poised to upend Vancouver in Game One of the Western Conference First Round contest.
But a missed opportunity with an awful power play stalled momentum for the Predators. And just a couple minutes later, the Canucks took over the game, scoring twice in 12 seconds to take a 3-2 lead.
Nashville wilted at that point, failing to generate any quality scoring chances in the latter half of the third period and falling 4-2 at Rogers Arena.
“We lost momentum,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said via Bally Sports. “We talk about that being such an important thing for our group. That’s why we were trying to pride ourselves on those first minutes [of a period], shifts after goals, because momentum is going to change so many times. Understand when you have it, you really have to work to keep it, and when you don’t have it, you have to try to get it back right away. Tonight it didn’t happen.”
The Predators will try to even the series in Game Two on Tuesday at 9 p.m. (CT) in Vancouver, but they will be battling their own dark playoff history as well. In 13 previous attempts, the Preds have never overcome an opening-game loss to win a series.
“I think this group has been resilient,” Brunette said. “We have handled adversity all year. To a man, we know we probably didn’t play our best. But we’ve done a really good job of just moving straight ahead. Just forget about it, rinse it, and let’s go back to work.”
It was Vancouver that stole the “relentless” theme out of the Preds’ playbook in the opener, as the Canucks killed that critical third-period Nashville power play and seized the upper hand.
Vancouver tied the game 2-2 with 11:01 left in regulation when Pius Suter’s slight redirection of Quinn Hughes’ wrist shot from the blue line eluded goalie Juuse Saros.
Twelve seconds later, the Predators left Vancouver forward Dakota Joshua wide open in front of the net. Nashville defenseman Alexander Carrier still had an opportunity to intercept Conor Garland’s pass from behind the goal line. But Carrier instead kicked the puck directly to Joshua, who quickly beat a helpless Saros.
An empty-net goal accounted for the final score.
“I thought probably both teams did enough good things to win the game and obviously [it was a] little disappointing when we had the lead in the third, to not close it out,” Predators forward Gustav Nyquist said. “Usually we’re able to do that. But it’s hockey. We haven’t played hockey for a little while here. It’s been a week since we played. It’s going to be a long series.”
Jason Zucker and Ryan O’Reilly each scored their first Nashville playoff goals, as the Preds held leads of 1-0 and 2-1 against the Pacific Division champs.
But the Predators weren’t able to respond following the Canucks’ counterpunch.
“We just stepped on our toe a little bit,” Brunette said. “Give them credit. They were resilient, too. They took advantage of some opportunities that were self-inflicted a little bit on our side. But they played really hard, and I was really proud of our group, how we handled it early, and how we started in my mind to take the game over.
“We just didn’t finish the job. So, lesson learned.”