After having the last three days off from game action the Nashville Predators fell 3-1 against the Vancouver Canucks in a late contest Wednesday evening.
Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko made 31 saves en route to his fourth win this season. Defenseman Quinn Hughes had two assists while rookie Linus Karlsson scored his first career goal in the second period.
“Little bit loose in the first period. I think we had a hard time with the pace of the game,” head coach Andrew Brunette said. “It was self-inflicted, especially some of our puck play. It didn’t give us a great chance to get our game going.”
Just 1:54 into the game Vancouver went to the powerplay first as Steven Stamkos was called for holding Brock Boeser. Colton Sissons blocked a JT Miller shot and the Canucks failed to generate any meaningful chances for the rest of the man advantage.
While Nashville was trying to find their footing offensively, captain Roman Josi attempted to fire a shot from the blue line but the puck was blocked by Elias Pettersson.
The Canucks broke down the ice and Hughes found Nils Hoglander in the slot to make it 1-0 Vancouver. It was Hoglander’s first of two as he later potted another puck into the empty net to close out the contest.
Nashville’s third line went on to respond as Zachary L’Heureux sped down the right wall to break the puck into the offensive zone. He centered the puck to Tommy Novak and the puck ricocheted off his skate in past Demko to even it up 1-1 just 1:30 later.
Vancouver came out of the gates in the second period with a lead foot on the gas possessing the puck for the first few minutes. Hughes was flying around the offensive zone maneuvering around Nashville’s defense.
Hughes found Tyler Myers in the left circle who then fed Karlsson a pass on the backdoor for the tap-in goal to make it 2-1. Karlsson scored the game-winner to put Vancouver back in front with his first career goal in his 10th NHL game.
Nashville got their first powerplay of the night with six minutes remaining in the second stanza and the Canucks held the Predators at bay with one shot getting to Demko.
“They weren’t sharp with the puck, the urgency with the puck wasn’t at a premium on the powerplay,” Brunette said. “We were slow with it. I don’t know how many poor passes or bouncing pucks we gave each other. They pressured us and we weren’t very good. I thought Novak’s unit was really good. They had some opportunities, our top guys didn’t really have it.”
As the final period got going the Predators went back to the powerplay for the second time.
Jonathan Marchessault found Josi for a one-timer from the blue line but Demko had no traffic in front of him so he was able to make an easy save.
Following the powerplay, the Predators’ fourth line was generating some looks on offense and saw defenseman Adam Wilsby fire a shot off the right post, nearly beating Demko to even it up with 13:52 to play.
Nashville caught a break again going on the man advantage as the Canucks were called for too many men on the ice with 8:32 remaining. Unfortunately, the third time wasn’t the charm for Nashville to put home a powerplay goal.
“I think we just didn’t execute, our breakouts weren’t good. I felt like we could never really get set up,” Josi said. “Every time we were in there we lost it right away. Our breakouts have been the biggest problem all year and it definitely wasn’t good tonight.”
Then Justin Barron came close to evening it up as well as he rang a shot off the right post a few moments later.
Despite some late pushes from the Predators the Canucks were able to hold on for the win, their only against Nashville in three meetings this season.
Up Next
The Predators are back on the road for a back-to-back this weekend.
Their first game is on Friday evening in Buffalo with Pete Weber and Hal Gill on the call. Pete will be back in the booth with Hal on Saturday as Nashville wraps up the trip against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Stay tuned for the action right here on 102.5 The Game.
Follow Nick Kieser on Twitter/X: @KieserNick
Photos courtesy of the Nashville Predators
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