Preds Earn Point, Fall to Ducks in Shootout

A goal from Kevin Fiala and a behind-the-back save from Pekka Rinne helped the Nashville Predators force overtime, but the Anaheim Ducks prevailed, 2-1, in a shootout on Monday night at Honda Center.
With a point earned in the standings, Nashville's point streak on the road reached the nine-game mark. Seeing its franchise-record and near-NHL-best road winning mark come to an end, however, wasn't easy to accept.
"We had a lot more to give," Preds defenseman Ryan Ellis said. "[Anaheim] played well. Give them credit, they were moving their feet, they were making plays, but I thought we weren't the best version of ourselves tonight. It comes down to a shootout, and it wasn't our way this time."

Similar to their rally in the third period on Saturday afternoon, the visitors hit another gear in the final frame to even the score. Roughly three minutes into the third, Fiala aimed a feed from Kyle Turris toward the Ducks' net with one fluid motion to tie the game, 1-1. The quick release was Fiala's second goal of the season, his first at even strength and his first in nearly a month (last on Oct. 19 vs. Calgary).

Defense was the storyline of the night by a longshot, as Rinne and John Gibson surrendered one goal apiece through 65 minutes and combined for 63 saves.
Rinne's best - coming in the final moments of the game with the score knotted - will likely stand as one of his finest saves from the entire season. Brandon Montour's point shot deflected at least once before it seemed destined to beat Rinne over the shoulder for a goal that would have delivered the Ducks a dramatic win.
The Preds' goaltender did something next that's still difficult to describe: reaching back to twist and hit the puck with the back of his blocker, a flailing effort that ultimately earned Nashville a point.

The first 39-plus minutes of the contest were scoreless, but with 30 seconds to play in the middle period, Ducks Captain Ryan Getzlaf directed a shot past Rinne to give Anaheim a 1-0 advantage.
Fiala then answered in the third to force extra time. Nashville was unable to score on a 4-on-3 power play and scored once in their first shootout of the season thanks to Turris, but Rickard Rakell netted the decisive marker in the breakaway competition.
Nashville finished 0-for-7 with the man advantage, including an opportunity in overtime that saw Gibson make save after save.
"The first half of the game, we tried to switch the units, and it's really tough to do without practice time," Predators Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. "I'd take that one on me. It was trying something different here and we switched back in the end. I thought we started to get some looks in overtime. We could have won the game a bunch of times on the power play, and it just didn't go for us… It's got to be better, but there were an awful lot of looks."
The point earned by the Preds on Monday was a little consolation, but they won't have much time to dwell on the loss with a meeting in San Jose looming in less than 24 hours.
"We're finding ways to get points, but we want two every game," Ellis said. "We've been fortunate in getting points and timely goals, but we have a difficult back-to-back, and hopefully we're a better version tomorrow."

Notes:
Nashville's 10 shots in the overtime session set a regular-season franchise record for 3-on-3 OT.
Prior to Monday's game, the Predators placed forward Viktor Arvidsson on Injured Reserve with an upper-body injury.
Forward Calle Jarnkrok missed his second consecutive game due to a lower-body injury. Defenseman Matt Irwin re-entered the lineup with Jarnkrok out, while blueliner Anthony Bitetto spent time on the fourth line as a forward for part of the contest.
The Predators will head to northern California to face the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday (at 9:30 p.m. CT) before finishing their five-game road trip on Thursday in Arizona.