The Predators tied the game late, but Nashville ultimately fell to the Edmonton Oilers by a 3-2 final in overtime on Thursday night at Rogers Place. The result sees the Preds earn at least a point for the third straight outing (1-0-2) with a second overtime defeat to start their five-game road trip.
“It's not going to come easy for us, that's for sure,” Preds forward Michael McCarron said. “I do like our effort in the past couple games in the third period and forcing overtime. Still feel there's moments in games where the tide kind of goes to their side and it takes us a while to get back to the way that we know how to play, and [we] kind of get away from our game. But a big point for us tonight… We just need to continue learning our game and grinding out our game. And we got great goaltending tonight, too, and we've been getting good goaltending. It's a little frustrating, but it's going to take a lot more work, and it's going to test our character, that's for sure.”
“It was good to get a point,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. “I didn't like our second period at all. I really liked our start. We kind of turned the puck over in the [back of our net], and then we kind of lost our game for the rest of the period. And I like the way we battled back in the third and got back to how we played in the first and gave us the opportunity to get a point.”
McCarron and Cole Smith tallied in the loss for Nashville, while goaltender Scott Wedgewood had his best effort of the season with 31 saves in the OT loss.
“He made the saves when we needed him to,” Smith said of Wedgewood. “I think there in the second [period], we left him out to dry a few times, and he bailed us out. So, it's a great game by him, and we should have got one for him tonight.”
The Predators had a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes courtesy of McCarron who redirected a Roman Josi feed from the slot for his second of the season.
But in the second stanza, Oilers Captain Connor McDavid became the 99th player in NHL history to record 1,000 points when he finished off a Leon Draisaitl pass off a 2-on-1 to tie the game. Edmonton then took their first lead of the night when Darnell Nurse beat Wedgewood top shelf to give the home club a 2-1 advantage after two periods.
The Oilers held that lead for most of the final frame as well, but with less than three minutes in regulation, Zach L’Heureux sent a pass up to Smith, and the winger snuck a shot through the five-hole of goaltender Calvin Pickard to force overtime.
In the extra frame, McDavid found Nurse for his second of the night to send the visitors off with a single point in the standings.
“I think the one point is huge,” Smith said. “We’ve got to try to start getting two points here, now. Obviously there in the second [period], we hit a little bit of a wall and took too long to get back to our game. But, we're proud of our group. [Wedgewood] kept us in it all night, and that was huge for us - and to battle back and get at least one [point] is big.”
The Predators will now turn their attention to Calgary where they’ll face the Flames to finish off a back-to-back set tomorrow night at the Scotiabank Saddledome, and the ebbs and flows of the game will be a focus.
“There's just some momentum swings in the game that we're taking too long to get back to our game, and I think that's what we need to clean up. When we're going, we're going. I mean, in the third period tonight, we were hounding pucks. We're all over it. I think we can throw more pucks at the net… Back-to-back on the road, it’s going to be a greasy game, and for us, it's going to have to be greasy, and we're going to have to get some dirty goals. And I think that's the way it's going to be tomorrow night.”
“Just try to keep building and maybe learning from experience here,” Brunette said. “These momentum times in the games, and we kind of hit a lull in our game where we're just maybe a little bit slow on everything, and we ended up defending way too much. So, just understanding those points in the game for us, it's been a grind here for us to go over that hump.”
Notes:
Nashville recalled Adam Wilsby on Wednesday from Milwaukee (AHL), but the blueliner did not play on Thursday after taking warmups. Forwards Mark Jankowski and Tommy Novak (upper-body, day-to-day) were also scratched.
Nashville will travel to Calgary to play the Flames tomorrow night to finish off a back-to-back set in the province of Alberta.
