Photo Credit: John Russell/NHLI via Getty Images
With Ryan Suter back in the lineup, Nashville had a chance to pull within 2 points of both St. Louis and Chicago with a win tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Getting 2 assists from Suter, 2 goals from Mike Fisher, and 28 saves from Pekka Rinne, the Nashville Predators up-ended the Blue Jackets 4-1 for their 3rd straight win.
Nashville will face off against Chicago tomorrow night for a chance to give the Predators a possible 3-way tie for 4th place in the Conference and 2nd place in the division (if St. Louis loses to Pittsburgh)
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Special Teams:
Powerplay – 2 for 5, 40%
Penalty Kill – 2 for 2, 100%
Best Play of the Game: Who can deny that Mike Fisher’s GooGoo goal was not the highlight of the game? Fisher scored off a rebound shot to give the Predators a 2-1 lead off a powerplay goal with less than 30 seconds to go in the 2nd period
Worst Play of the Game: It’s hard to stop a speeding Rick Nash on a semi-breakaway. Scooting down the ice, Nash was able to pull off an Ovechkin-like feat of putting the puck around Rinne WHILE falling down and evening the score at 1 apiece at 6:14 of the second.
My Three Stars:
#1: – Mike Fisher – A 2 goal night for Mike Fisher, including the rare and mysterious GooGoo goal took Fisher to double digits on the year in goals (now at 11)
#2: – Pekka Rinne – Rinne collected his 17th win in his past 19 games tonight with a 28 save performance against a team he’s seen plenty of in his career.
#3: – Ryan Suter – 2 assist night and a whopping 23 minutes of ice time after missing the past 4 games with an Upper Body Injury. Talk about being thrown right back into the fire.
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