Wild beat Predators 3-2 at Home
Nashville loses its 3 straight in Minnesota. Time for a closed door meeting tonight. Something is missing. Read the Story of the Game. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
Line Up News:
Scratches for the Predators: #5 C Blake Geoffrion
Scratches for the Wild: #2 D Mike Lundin, #33 G Niklas Backstrom, and #33 Paul Deutsch
Starting Goalies: For the Predators, #35 Pekka Rinne with 27 saves. For the Wild, #37 Josh Harding with 23 saves.
Crazy story for the Wild and the goalie position. Paul Deutsch, a 51 year old practice goalie, was signed with the Wild as an “emergency backup”. With Backstrom not there for “personal reasons”, the goalie the Wild were to bring up immediately couldn’t be in Minnesota until 6:30 PM CDT. Hackett is his name and he didn’t arrive until around 6:52-7:04 PM CDT, not sure. That means that Hackett had no warm-up. If Hackett wasn’t able to play, that means a 51 year old goalie, with no professional experience, would be dressed in the NHL as a backup. Wow, what an experience for Paul Deutsch.
Period Summary
Jordin Tootoo scored the first goal of the game early. He crashed the net and put a shot on. Tootoo got a second opportunity and put it away. That is exactly what happens when you crash the net. Both teams had good opportunities. The Wild out shot the Preds 10-9 in the 1st.
Brian McGratton went to the locker room after getting hit from behind by Colton Gillies. McGratton came back and looked mad. Gillies received 2 minute minor. The 2nd consisted of back and forth hockey. Great saves by both goalies. Minnesota’s execution on the offense has been awful. An odd man rush, and they miss the net. Getting in front of the net and getting stopped by Rinne. Multiple opportunities have been wasted by the Wild. Minnesota out shot Nashville once again this period, 12-8.
At the start of the 3rd, Koivu and Heatley were on the 2 on 1 and buried it. They took advantage of the opportunity. Craig Smith received a penalty for goalie interference. Harding stuck his blocker out to block Smith from getting the puck. The ref didn’t make the call until the crowd went crazy. Awful call ref. Another embellishment after a hit by the stick by Suter. The ref didn’t call it until the player shook his hand, acting like it hurt. That made it 5 on 3. Brodziak’s PP goal was fluky and Rinne knows he should have stopped it. That goal made it 2-1 Wild. Cal Clutterbuck scores a bad one. Rinne stumbles when he was coming out of the net and Clutterbuck scores and celebrates in an unsportsmanlike way. Right after that, he tries to fight Hornqvist and ends getting taken down by the linesman. Congrats Cal, you continue to piss me off! Suter scores right in the slot on the 5 on 3. Took a while for them to shoot, but that made it 3-2 Wild. Excellent forechecking by the Wild delayed the Preds from pulling Rinne. In the last chance for the Preds to score, scrambling, they don’t score.
Wild Players To Watch: #96 F Pierre-Mar Bouchard with 0 points and #10 F Devin Setoguchi with 1 point
Goals & Assists of the Game
Jordin Tootoo – Smith and Spaling at 5:21 in the 1st
Danny Heatley – Koivu and Setoguchi at 1:05 in the 3rd
PP Kyle Brodziak – Cullen and Scandela at 9:39 in the 3rd
SH Cal Clutterbuck – Koivu at 13:19 in the 3rd
PP Ryan Suter – Tootoo and Erat at 13:57 in the 3rd
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Next game: Predators @ Red Wings Saturday at 6 PM CDT. Preview coming Friday.
