Recap: Preds Spoil Pacioretty's Hurricanes Debut

RALEIGH, NC. -The Nashville Predators played spoiler in Max Pacioretty's Carolina Hurricanes debut Thursday, taking a 5-3 win at PNC Arena.

The Story

Just 149 days after suffering the Achilles tear, Pacioretty joined the lineup after Stefan Noesen suffered a lower-body injury Tuesday night in New York. Skating alongside Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Derek Stepan, the line played a role in the Canes coming out of the gate with a hot start.
On their very first power play of the night, just 7:41 in, a Brett Pesce shot from the point caromed off of Paul Stastny and by Juuse Saros, giving Carolina an early 1-0 lead.

However, similar to their contest against the Rangers earlier this week, tonight's contest would become one of back-and-forth scoring. Nashville would respond with a power play goal of their own fewer than three minutes later, sending the game to the second even.
To start the middle frame it would be more of the same, with the two sides trading goals under three minutes apart again.
Brady Skjei put home a connection with Brett Pesce just 35 seconds into the frame, but Mattias Ekholm made it a 2-2 contest 2:12 later.
Later in the frame?
You guessed it, two goals separated by under three minutes.
First, in his 700th game with the team, Jordan Staal put the Canes back in front with a goal on a partial breakaway. But just 2:01 after, Cody Glass stuffed one by Pyotr Kochetkov, who was making a second consecutive start.

Despite Carolina having established a dominating advantage in shots, 39-16 after 40 minutes of play, the Predators would pull away in the third. It was a 28-shot period for the home team, but a Ryan Johansen shot from the wall was tipped in front by Mark Jankowski, serving as the game-winner. Colton Sissons would hit the empty net inside the final five seconds, closing out the contest at 5-3.

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They Said It

Max Paciorettyfollowing his first game in 251 days...
"It was nerve-wracking, to be honest. I felt like I kind of played like a little bit of a meatball in the first... I'm playing with two really good players and that helped me get into it. I really liked the way that Step and KK played. It helped me out early on and I told them that I wanted to do some dirty work for them to get my feet into it and get going. I thought we created a lot, but I would like to bury one in a game like that."
Jordan Staalwhen asked about how the team came up short, despite producing so many chances...
"We gave up four goals, so we have to find ways to tighten it up. I'd love to see our special teams win that battle; I think that's my difference maker tonight. We created a lot of offense, obviously, but we've always got to play tight defense if you want to win games in this league."
Rod Brind'Amouron how to avoid frustration sinking in after losing a game like that...
"You're going to leave here upset and frustrated. But tomorrow is a new day. When we were on the streak, no one was talking about it in the room. When we were winning all those games it was always about tomorrow and the next day. Now we're on a little bit of a losing one, we're not talking about that. It'll be how do we get better tomorrow, and the guys understand that."

Bonus Notes

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What's Next?

The Canes are scheduled to practice Friday before traveling to Columbus ahead of a Saturday afternoon (4 p.m.) meeting with the Blue Jackets.
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