Predators force Game 7 after stunning OT win vs. Sharks
A bouncing puck. An innocent shot. A baffled goaltender.
A Game 7 between the Nashville Predators and the San Jose Sharks, as the Preds survived Game 6 at home with a thrilling 4-3 win to even the series, thanks to forward Viktor Arvidsson’s overtime goal just 2:02 into the extra frame
Miikka Salomaki shoved the puck near the Sharks’ defensive zone. Melker Karlsson couldn’t settle the puck down. Arvidsson did, skating past two Sharks. That seemed to surprise defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who was caught flat-footed for a moment. It was just long enough for Arvidsson to unleash a floating backhanded that eluded Martin Jones to end the game.
“He high-flipped it. Their guy missed the puck with his skate. Just get it to the net and hope something would happen,” said Arvidsson of his goal, the first playoff one of his career.
Jones, with a chance to close out the series, had arguably his worst game of the playoffs: Four goals on 32 shots, and frequently fighting the puck (when he could locate it) in the later stages of the game.
(Pekka Rinne, with 3 goals on 18 shots, wasn’t much better.)
Chris Tierney got the Sharks on the board and then doubled their goal total in the first period.
Tierney tipped home a Vlasic point shot for the 1-0 lead at 9:55 – his stick was on the borderline of being too high on the play.
He struck again 1:56 later, thanks to a turnover in the Predators’ defensive zone. The puck found its way to Tomas Hertl, who fired a hard shot off of Rinne. The rebound slid over to Tierney, whose backhander beat the Predators goalie.
Roman Josi cut into the lead on a strange sequence filled with funky bounces. After the Sharks blew a line change, the puck found Josi in the slot. His backhand shot bounced through the San Jose defense and over goalie Martin Jones, cutting it to 2-1.
The teams each dominated a period: The Sharks in the first, preventing a Predators shot for the first 10:02 of the game; and Nashville in the second, preventing a Sharks shot for the last 5:33 of the second and tying the game.
The Predators knotted it at 1:25 of the second period during 4-on-4 play. Ryan Johansen moved around Sharks defenseman Justin Braun, slipping a seemingly pedestrian backhander past Jones for the tie.
The third period saw the Sharks take the lead briefly on terrible play by Rinne.
With San Jose on the power play, Rinne attempted to move Joe Pavelski away from his crease, reaching out with his glove into the Shark’s captain’s back. But as the puck was worked to the other side of the ice, Rinne basically took himself out of the play – stumbling off-balance to the ice, leaving the top of the net wide open for Logan Couture’s sixth of the playoffs.
But just 2:40 later, a gorgeous passing play from Mike Ribeiro to James Neal to Colin Wilson tied the game – thanks in no small part to either Roman Polak or Joel Ward blowing their defensive assignment and puck-watching, leaving Wilson alone in front for his fifth of the playoffs.
The Predators pushed and the Sharks ran out the clock to escape to overtime, where it ended quickly.
The good news for San Jose is that the series shifts home, where they’ve dominated the Predators for stretches and where both teams have held serve.
But this one hurt, with the two-goal lead and the 3-2 lead squandered.
“We got a Game 7 at home, which is what you play all season for,” said coach Pete DeBoer. “It’s two good teams. It should go to a Game 7.”
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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
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