Preds Secure 2-1 OT Victory Over Ducks

It may have taken an extra three minutes and 50 seconds, but the Nashville Predators were able to get it done in overtime to secure a 2-1 win and hand the Anaheim Ducks their third straight loss. With the win, the Predators (10-9-2) are 5-1-1 in their last seven games.
Nashville carried a 1-0 lead into the third period, but Anaheim's Troy Terry tied it at 10:39 with a wrist shot from the slot to send the game to overtime. Preds captain Roman Josi beat Ducks goaltender John Gibson with a wrist shot from the face-off circle at 3:50 of OT to seal the 2-1 victory for Nashville.

Key Takeaways

Smashville Strong
The flooding caused by a water main break early Friday morning could have easily caused Bridgestone Arena to be shut down for months, Nashville Predators President & CEO Sean Henry said in a media availability Tuesday morning. Instead, the venue was able to safely reopen in mere days - just in time for the Preds to host the Ducks as scheduled.
While full remediation efforts will indeed take several months, an exhaustive restoration effort by arena staff, more than 30 public works agencies, vendors and other private companies made Tuesday's game possible.

Even the visiting players and staff were surprised to see the building in such good condition when they arrived for morning skate on Tuesday, which speaks to the magnitude of the relief efforts that took place over the weekend.
"We just talked to a few of the Ducks people and they all said, 'Wow, where was the flood?'" Henry said. "They were looking all around and we were like, 'It's where you're standing.' We're really proud of our whole team, all of our city partners and our sponsors for getting us to where we are now."

Dutchy & Sis: Duck Hunters
Colton Sissons got the scoring started in the second period, burying a pass from Matt Duchene to give the Preds a 1-0 lead.

With the goal, Sissons now has nine points (4g-5a) in 16 career meetings with Anaheim. Duchene also has 12 points (6g-6a) in his last eight games against the Ducks, including two three-point performances in 2021-22.
Duck, Duck, Juice
Juuse Saros made 34 saves in net for the Predators, including several stops on the breakaway. He made a huge save in the second period, shutting down a 2-on-0 rush from Terry and Trevor Zegras.

"You get a save like that and it keeps you in the game," Duchene said of his goaltender. "And I think we were the better team in the second period, but we obviously had a five-alarm emergency on that play. So that was a huge save by him and then we were able to get the first goal again, which was huge."

More Notes

They Said It

Josi on the win:
It was a big win for us. I think we played really well at some points in the game and I think there were some points where we can play a lot better. But, obviously it was a big win after a little bit of a longer break than we expected. And it's always nice to get two points.
Sissons on his second-period goal:
We talked about getting to the net a lot this morning. And we need to do more of that and be more determined to score more goals and I tried to do that. But [Duchene] put a perfect pass on my stick and it was a great play.
Josi on his OT game winner:
It was a great play. [ Mikael Granlund ] got on a loose puck and made a nice play to [Duchene]. Then I knew Dutchy was coming to me and then I just tried to get it off as quickly as possible. But it was a great play by Granny and Dutchy.

Duchene on letting the game go to OT:
We probably shouldn't have tonight. They had some good goaltending and so do we, obviously in the third. But we've got to find ways to ramp it up a little bit and put them away earlier. They've got good goaltending, and it seems like we get a lot of really good goaltending efforts these days, but I thought the first two periods were really solid. And then the third period obviously that was their push and they got one there. It would have been nice to put them away earlier in the game, but we got it done. So we'll keep building.
Duchene on Saros' 2-on-0 save:
Honestly, I'd give him a 2-0 over breakaways. He's the best breakaway goalie I've ever seen, but I've never seen him get scored on 2-0 even in practice. It's insane. His anticipation there was incredible. He reads the game so well. He's so fast. When the guy made the pass back, I think I was more comfortable than when the guy had the breakaway by himself. But I was sitting on the bench just knowing that he makes those saves all the time. So, it was huge. He made another great save early on, so he was big for us.

Head Coach John Hynes on Nashville's overall effort:
I thought the way that we managed the puck up ice to be able to get into the offensive zone was strong. I also felt when we got in the offensive zone, we played with some speed and power. I thought we had a shot mentality and had guys getting into the net, and I think that generated us the opportunity to be able to get retrievals from those situations and have some plays open up from there. The third period we didn't attack as much. I thought our puck decisions [caused] a lot of turnovers. We weren't able to make their defenseman turn and get the offensive zone. [We had] a lot of one-and-dones, and that fueled a little bit of their attack. So I think for 40 minutes, it was at a level that we needed to be, but I think our third period has to be better than what it was.
Hynes on the play of Saros:
Saros was excellent… We just give easy offense and we needed him to make some big saves. If we want to continue to move on and win hockey games and get better as a team, you can't give gifts for free. And if we didn't get great goaltending tonight on some of those opportunities that we gave up, it could be a difference in the game. So he was big, but we got to be tighter than that.

Up Next

The Preds will head north for back-to-back road games against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday and the New York Islanders on Friday. Both games will be broadcast on Bally Sports South, 102.5 The Game and El Jefe Radio.