"Tough loss," Josi said. "Special teams were a huge factor tonight… We've got to be better on the power play, and be better on the penalty kill. Special teams are always a big factor. To get out of the box is always a big factor."
"We did a really good job on the 5-on-5, and we know that we can play against these guys 5-on-5," Tolvanen said. "We took way too many penalties. They scored four power-play goals. That's one thing we have to clean up."
Colorado had a 2-0 lead in the game's first 16 minutes with a pair of power-play goals, but the Preds got on the board before the opening period was out courtesy of Duchene picking a corner on Avalanche goaltender Darcy Kuemper to bring Nashville to within one goal. Then, late in the period, Kuemper caught an inadvertent stick through a hole in his mask and left the game with backup netminder Pavel Francouz taking over
Less than six minutes into the second stanza, the Preds got their first man-advantage tally of the afternoon when Tolvanen converted from the left circle, and after the Avalanche took a 3-2 lead, Josi blasted a shot from the blue line that beat Francouz on the power play to tie the score at 3-3.
But the Avalanche regained the lead just over a minute later, and Nashville's challenge on the play for goaltender interference was unsuccessful. That led to another power-play goal for Colorado to give them a 5-3 advantage after 40 minutes of play.
Colorado added two more in the third period - and their seventh went into an empty net - as Predators goaltender Connor Ingram made 35 more saves in a Game 3 that didn't go the home team's way.
"They obviously have a great power play and wound up scoring on it, and I think we can do a few things better," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "There's always little things when it winds up going in the back of your net that you can improve upon. But tonight they executed well, they made some plays down low. I thought there were opportunities too, even on a couple of the goals; we had some won faceoffs and had a stick on it to clear it, we didn't clear it and then they were able to get the set on it. So, I think there's little things in there that can be better come Monday."
Everyone in the Nashville locker room realizes the situation they're now in - but the series isn't over until someone wins four. The Preds just need one victory to start, and they'll try to do so on Monday night and extend their season.
"You have to win one," Hynes said. "I think when you look at it right now, we've got a group that's been resilient. We know what it is. We know we're in a series, and you're not out of a series until it hits four. So, our objective isn't where it's going. We have to rest and recover and regroup a little bit tomorrow. We've got to get back ready to play the game on Monday."
"We liked our game," Josi said. "I thought we played a lot better than we did in the first two games. We've got to stay aggressive. There's not one person in this room that doesn't believe that we can turn this around. We're going to come out on Monday and play aggressively. They are up 3-0. We've got to make sure we bring the same game 5-on-5 and correct the penalties. We believe we can beat this team."
