After the South Florida road trip for the Nashville Predators rookie squad, they will come home 2-0 and outscoring their opposition 10-4.
Today’s noon tilt had the rookies up against the Florida Panthers rookies. After an opening 20 minutes that saw Nashville give up the first goal to Florida and end up coming off the ice down 1-0, the Predators turned it around in the second getting Josh Shalla on the board to tie the game.
After that, it was the Craig Smith show for the second day in a row.
Smith netted a second period powerplay goal (assisted by Ellis) in the trail end of a powerplay after a 2-man advantage and scored 67 seconds into the third, giving him his 5th and 6th goals in just two outings with the Nashville Predators rookie squad
Atte Engren made the start for the Predators, stopping 16 of 17 before being swapped out halfway into the game to give Chet Pickard some playing time, who was perfect for the rest of regulation.
After the exhibition went final, both teams squared up for an exhibition shootout where Florida ended up prevailing 2-1 in 6 rounds over the Predators squad.
All the official stats and numbers should be coming to us here soon, so we’ll keep you posted on all the post-game updates that we received from the War Room in Nashville.
However, one thing I will note:
Craig Smith is fighting to be on the 2011 Opening Night roster for the Predators. 6 goals in 2 games….wow. Natural hat trick in the first and NEARLY another natural hat trick in this game (missed an empty net with less than a minute left in the third).
I am really jumping on board the Craig Smith train…I know it’s against rookies but his play in the World’s also showed he’s can keep up with the big boys. Might be just the offensive help we need.