Steven Stamkos and Nils Hoglander each tallied a pair of goals, but the Nashville Predators fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs by a 5-4 final in overtime on Tuesday night at Scotiabank Arena. The result gives the Preds a loss in their first road game of the season, and although they gained a point in the standings, they were hoping for more.
Nashville got off to a 2-0 advantage, and they held leads of 3-0 and 4-2 in the second period, but the Maple Leafs kept pressing before Auston Matthews tallied the winner with less than 15 seconds to play in overtime.
“Pretty disappointing,” Stamkos said of the final result. “I mean, we played so well at the beginning. We had a 3-0 lead, came out, started strong, and then I don't know how many times we have to remind ourselves that taking penalties is a recipe to allow teams back in the game… We need to bear down a little more, and the good thing is it's correctable, right? It's something that we can do a better job of, and not allow teams to get some momentum when we have control of the game.”
“We're learning things the hard way on the road,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said. “Obviously, taking penalties there at the end of the first and start of the second, that kind of derailed us and gave them momentum… Again, it's early in the season, but we're not for luxury to wade into this. And thought we lost too many puck battles. We left some pucks as the game went on in the middle of the ice. Things that we know better. They're correctable, just got to go back and understand we can't take penalties on the road, and that was a big focus. It was a little disappointing that that happened.”
Stamkos got the scoring started when he finished off an impressive Nashville power play by potting his 626th career goal, a marker that gave him sole possession of 17th place on the NHL’s all-time scoring list.
Minutes later, Hoglander’s first of the night came when he collected a rebound off the end boards and tucked the puck over the line for his second in as many games.
Hoglander’s second of the evening came early in the middle frame when he finished off a Filip Forsberg opportunity in front, but then the Leafs got on the board. First, John Tavares beat Juuse Saros streaking down the wing, and William Nylander brought Toronto within one on the power play.
Stamkos restored the two-goal Nashville lead when he went top shelf past Anthony Stolarz for his second of the night, but Gavin McKenna’s first career NHL goal brought Toronto back to within one before the period was out.
The Leafs then tied the game in the third, and they appeared to have taken a 5-4 lead midway through the frame, but a successful offside challenge from the visitors helped to force overtime.
The extra session was back and forth, including a 3-on-0 for Toronto that was turned aside by Saros, but the Leafs had the final possession where Matthews ended it for the home club.
“It was an entertaining game, and [Saros] made some unbelievable saves,” Brunette said. “I thought it was kind of a fun overtime for the fans, probably not much fun for the coaches. I thought it was back and forth, we had our looks and didn't really capitalize on our 2-on-1s, and they got [into our zone] late in the shift, and you knew something was going to happen. [But the Saros save on the] 3-on-0 was pretty awesome.”
From here, the Preds will now travel to Montreal in advance of a date with the Canadiens on Thursday night, and they’ll look to not only duplicate their start, but then put forth a better finish on the road.
“We have to skate and move our feet, and that's when we're at our best,” Stamkos said. “When we get good sticks on pucks, we're extending shifts in the other team's ends, and we're setting up the next line for success, so that's the recipe. We've done it in spurts, and we've seen how successful it can be. That's what we have to get back to on a more consistent basis.”
“We’re going to go into arguably the best team in the East, or one of them, and we have to fix these [errors] pretty quick here,” Brunette said. “Our mindset has to be a little bit better than it was, especially through the second period.”
Notes:
Prior to Tuesday’s game, the Preds placed goaltender Justus Annunen on Injured Reserve and recalled netminder Matt Murray from Milwaukee to back up Saros.
The Predators elected to go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen once more, with Ilya Lyubushkin, Reid Schaefer and Vitali Pinchuk serving as healthy scratches on Tuesday.
Per NHLPR, Ryan O’Reilly recorded his 900th career point on Tuesday and became the third player from the 2009 NHL Draft to reach the mark, following John Tavares (1,188) and Matt Duchene (936).
Roman Josi extended his season-opening point streak to three games, tied for the longest run by a Predators defenseman since Ryan Suter in 2010-11 (3 GP). Steven Stamkos became the third active player to score 100 game-opening goals. The others: Alex Ovechkin (154) and Sidney Crosby (127).
Forsberg’s assist on Hoglander’s second goal was his 400th career helper.
Nashville’s three-game trip continues on Thursday in Montreal as the Preds face the Canadiens before meeting the Senators in Ottawa on Saturday night.
