Preds Fall to Hurricanes in Game 2 of First-Round Series

Juuse Saros made 28 saves in Game 2, but the Predators were unable to solve Carolina on Wednesday night, as Nashville fell to Carolina by a 3-0 final. The result sees the Canes take a 2-0 series lead in the best-of-seven matchup as things now shift to Nashville.
Carolina goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic stopped all 32 Predators shots he faced, and Sebastian Aho scored twice for the Hurricanes in a contest that saw the visitors make their fair share of improvements from Game 1, but they were unable to find a way to prevail.

"There's more positives from tonight than the first game," Preds center Ryan Johansen said. "We did some good things out there and played against a great hockey team, and we've just got to find a way to do a little bit more."
"We did a lot of good things tonight, and as we talk about after every game, I thought we made some improvements to our game tonight and had lots of better individual performances, which is what we wanted," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "We've got to continue to build on that. We get a day tomorrow, and then we've got to be ready to go in front of our crowd."
Special teams played a notable role in Game 2, and Nashville went 0-for-7 on the power play, an area the group knows has to be better moving forward.

"Today is frustrating because we had so many chances on the power play," Preds Captain Roman Josi said. "We played really well 5-on-5, and our power play is not getting the job done right now. If you don't score, at least you've got to create some momentum. They had probably more chances on our power play than we did, so we've got to be a lot better on the power play."
Carolina had a 1-0 advantage after 20 minutes courtesy of a power-play goal from Aho, and that score held into the final frame, thanks in part to the stellar play of Saros.
"Juice will be Juice," Johansen said of Saros. "He's a stud, one of the hardest-working kids around in the business. We count on him and he was great tonight."
The Preds continued to push as the game wore on, especially in the second and third periods, but Nedeljkovic held them off the scoresheet, before Aho added an empty-netter and Warren Foegele sealed it with a third tally for Carolina.
"When you look at the hockey game, we played a pretty good game," Hynes said. "Their goaltender made some really good saves, we had good looks, and I think you look at shot attempts, you look at shots, you look at offensive-zone time, you look at how the game was played; we've got to do a better job of the power play… but I think there's a lot of good things to come in the game. We're in a series. We're a better team than we were on the first night, we obviously know the power play has got to be better, but I think there's a lot of positives going out of this game and then coming home."
The Predators will indeed return to Bridgestone Arena starting with Game 3 on Friday night (at 6 p.m. CT), and after playing in front of a hostile environment in Carolina, they're looking forward to feeding off the energy of their home fans as they look to collect their first win of the series.
"I'm excited to just get back to Bridgestone and get in front of our fans," Johansen said. "[We'll see the] most fans we've had in over a year, and I'm just looking forward to that. We know what our crowd can do to our club and the energy it can bring to us, so we are just excited to get home and play in front of our fans."

Notes:
Predators forward Calle Jarnkrok missed Game 2 with a non-COVID illness and is considered day-to-day. Forward Eeli Tolvanen entered the Nashville lineup on Wednesday, as did Brad Richardson and Matt Benning.
Mathieu Olivier and Ben Harpur were scratched for the Preds in Game 2 after appearing in Game 1; forwards Rem Pitlick, Nick Cousins, Rocco Grimaldi and Michael McCarron, defensemen Tyler Lewington, David Farrance, Jeremy Davies and Dante Fabbro, as well as goaltender Kasimir Kaskisuo were also scratched in Game 2.
The Predators and Hurricanes will now head to Nashville for the next two outings with Game 3 set for Friday evening (6 p.m. CT) at Bridgestone Arena.