Kemell Leads Preds to Overtime Win Against Hurricanes to Finish Preseason

Joakim Kemell lowered the boom - and then won the game.

The Nashville rookie scored in overtime as the Predators concluded the preseason with a 3-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday afternoon at Bridgestone Arena. The result sees the Preds finish the exhibition schedule with a 3-2-1 record and the regular season on the horizon.

Kemell owned the extra session as he first laid one of the hardest hits in recent memory on Hurricanes star Andrei Svechnikov at center ice, which led to Carolina’s Sebastian Aho taking a retaliatory unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to put the Preds on the power play.

Then, as the OT clock ticked down, Brady Skjei found Kemell in the left circle, and the Finn one-timed a shot into the twine to conclude the preseason with a rather large exclamation point.

“That’s one of the harder hits I’ve seen in hockey, to be honest with you,” Preds forward Ryan O’Reilly said. “In overtime, you never really see that. That was pretty special. I feel like it’s people in the building, it’s the bench, the excitement that happened - and he seals it off with an unbelievable shot, too. That fired everyone up. It was great.”

“I’ve seen a lot of things - I don't think I've seen a hit like that, 3-on-3, and then to back it up with a goal, and they were trying to get at him,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said of Kemell. “It was pretty fun to be a part of. And happy for [Kemell]. I think he's had a really good camp. He's gotten better. I feel every day [he’s] a little bit more comfortable. And I thought he had a heck of a hockey game, and I'm happy he got rewarded for it and scored a big goal.”

And to hear Kemell tell it? Well, no big deal.

“I mean, just a part of me,” Kemell said. “I like to play hard and I like to hit. I mean, that was good timing. I don't know what to say - good hit, good goal. I like to shoot, so I hit the net so I can score.”

Jonathan Marchessault and Tyson Jost also tallied on the day for Nashville, and goaltender Juuse Saros made 23 saves in net to help the Preds to a satisfying result.

“It was good,” O’Reilly said of the effort. “I thought we started a little slow but found our game. Took it to them, maybe a little pushback, but in general, I thought the energy was good, even when things were going wrong… Guys were still working and talking and not getting down and quiet. I think that’s really important for us. It’s big…find a way to win.”

After Carolina took a 1-0 lead courtesy of a Jordan Martinook goal in the opening period, the Preds countered with a one-time blast from Marchessault on a 5-on-3 advantage to even the score through 20 minutes.

In the second stanza, it was Jost who collected his own rebound and gave Nashville their first lead of the afternoon - against the team the Predators claimed him from on waivers earlier in the week.

The Hurricanes forced overtime when they tied the game with just over five minutes to play in regulation, but in the extra frame, Kemell made a statement and sent the Smashville faithful home happy.

“Nobody's perfect, especially this time of year, but lots of good,” Brunette said. “What I really appreciated was the energy that our group had. They were talking, they were helping each other out, and it’s fun to have that energy on the bench with them, and then they get rewarded for it. So, it was a really good outing for us, but it is the last game of the exhibition season. I hope we keep that feeling, because we worked really hard for that feeling tonight.”

With the preseason schedule now complete and training camp essentially concluded, the Preds will turn their attention to Opening Night - and the chance to start a new season off the way they finished the tune-up on Saturday.

“I think we want to get to our game right away, establish it,” O’Reilly said. “I feel like with the way guys have worked and trained - we’ve still got a few work days left here - but we want to get off to start building this identity right away, and it takes everyone. That's something we’ve kind of harped on in camp. We want to get to our game. We want to make this a very tough building to play in. We're going to make it hard on teams and fast, and we're excited to start that Thursday.”

Notes:

Prior to Saturday’s game, the Preds signed forward Luke Evangelista to a two-year, $6 million contract. Evangelista did not play against Carolina, but he is in Nashville after signing his deal.

Preds defenseman Nic Hague (upper-body) and forward Matthew Wood (lower-body) have both been placed on Injured Reserve. Hague is now two to three weeks away from returning, while Wood is still week-to-week.

On Friday, the Preds assigned forward Zach L’Heureux and defenseman Tanner Molendyk to Milwaukee. Nashville needs to be down to 23 players on the active roster by Monday afternoon.

With the 2025 preseason schedule now complete, the Preds will turn their attention to Opening Night where they’ll host the Columbus Blue Jackets at Bridgestone Arena to begin the 2025-26 campaign on Oct. 9.