The Nashville Predators rookies played 2 games this week. The First game was with the Tampa Bay Lightning and the other was with the Florida Panthers. And the Preds Rookies won both.
vs. TBL W 7-3
vs FLA W 3-1
Here is the story of the Panthers game by Jay Leven-Nashville Predators
Craig Smith continued his rookie tournament dominance with two more goals as the Nashville Predators rookies earned a 3-1 win over the Florida Panthers rookies on Tuesday afternoon in Coral Springs, Florida. The Preds swept their two-game round-robin tournament, out scoring the Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning rookies by a combined 10-4 margin. Smith was the star of the tournament finishing the two games with six goals and one assist.
With the game tied 1-1 midway through the second period, Smith converted a power-play goal from Ryan Ellis to give the Preds a 2-1 lead. Smith added an unassisted goal 1:01 into the third period to push Nashville’s lead to 3-1.
The Panthers opened the game’s scoring 3:41 into the first period. Josh Shalla, a member of Nashville’s 2011 Draft Class, netted the equalizer 3:20 into the second period to set the stage for Smith’s game-winner.
Similar to last night’s game Chet Pickard and Atte Engren split the action in net for Nashville. Engren started the game and turned aside 16-of-17 shots. Engren finished the two games with 36 saves on 38 shots (.947 save percentage). Pickard took over in the middle of the second period and stopped all 20 shots he faced to close out the two game set with 40 saves on 42 shots (.952 save percentage).
———————————————————————-
Nice to see the Goalies do well. Also, nice to see Ryan Ellis score. The rookies are looking good.
