Photo Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images
Grabbing 2 goals in 2:39 late in the third period, Mike Fisher tied the game and added the game winner, securing a 5-4 win for the Nashville Predators over the Minnesota Wild after trailing by 3 goals at two separate times during the contest.
Coming back from a 3-0 deficit and a 4-1 deficit after allowing a goal 16 seconds in the third period, Nashville jumps to 66 points on the season, sitting one back of league leading New York (Rangers) and the Detroit Red Wings three back of the league leading Detroit Red Wings, who won tonight in Calgary 3-1.
The Nashville Predators next play the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night before coming home Saturday to face division rival St. Louis in front of a should-be sold out crowd.
Nashville seemed to want to find a way to continuously let the Wild have the lead tonight, as they found themselves down 2-0 after the first period. With Dany Heatley grabbing two goals, including an amazing seeing-eye bat-in powerplay goal, the first period was 20 minutes the Predators easily wanted to forget.
The second wouldn’t get any easier for Nashville as they would go down 3-0 early in at 1:29 of the period when Cal Clutterbuck knocked one in off his own foot and had the Predators just in the right position for the Wild to lock them down for the remainder of the game. Yet, Nashville would find the back of the net at 9:33 with Matt Halischuk getting his 12th goal of the season.
Progressively getting better over the forty minutes played thus far, Nashville looked poised to try for a comeback only down two goals. However, the Wild seemed to have other plans, scoring 16 seconds into the third to give them back their three goal lead they had lost midway in the second period.
Nine minutes later, the Predators would stage an amazing comeback that could only be fitting of the word “epic”.
After a lengthy review from Toronto, a seemingly innocent play with an almost inconclusive view of an on-ice ruled No Goal, the war room overturned the ruling and gave Brandon Yip his first goal as a Nashville Predator at 9:22 of the third period to make it a 4-2 game. Patric Hornqvist would join the fun seven minutes later at 16:39 to make it 4-3 pushing the puck past Harding in a Hornqvist-esque gritty goal.
Then, it was all Mike Fisher. Scoring 22 seconds after Hornqvist’s goal and 2:39 after that one, Fisher’s two goals tied the game and won it for Nashville, who gave the Minnesota Wild possibly their most heartbreaking loss in quite some time.
—————–
HIGHLIGHTS:
—————–
Special Teams:
Powerplay – 0 for 1, 0%
Penalty Kill – 0 for 1, 0%
Best Play of the Game: Who says putting the puck on net is a bad thing? Mike Fisher fires one towards Harding with 21 seconds left and it finds its way past him to give the Predators a 5-4 lead that they would hold on to.
Worst Play of the Game: Down 2 goals and entering a crucial third period, Nashville started it on the wrong foot. 16 seconds in, Kyle Brodziak put one past Rinne to make it a 4-1 game.
My Three Stars:
#1: – Mike Fisher – 2 goals, 0 assists, -1 on the night. His two goals late in the third could have been the most clutch goals in his career
#2: – Dany Heatley – 2 goals, 1 assist, +1 on the night. 3 point night including 2 early goals was definitely overshadowed by the giant brain-fart the Wild had in the third period
#3: – Matt Halischuk – 1 goal, 1 assist, +2 on the night. Halischuk got the ball rolling for the Predators and forced the play where Yip would get his first as a Predators. Another super impressive night for him.
———————————
Check back daily for news, updates and pre- and post-game information from The Predatorial.
It was fun to watch, at least the last couple of minutes. But to be honest: it was a lucky win, and the Preds didnt play as good as they did before the allstar break. But nice to see that they dont give up and keep on trying until the end of the game.
I felt really good before the start of the game. Then, I saw the Preds assistant equipment manager come out of the tunnel before the players did. One by one he dumped the pucks out onto the ice!!!!! Then, I watched a chubby little kid standing at the railing of the tunnel fondling the players’ sticks!!!!! So then I got scared and sure enough the goals started to pour in. I knew it wasn’t my fault though. It was the equipment manager and the chubby kid! At 4-1 I was about ready to hit the exit and get on the road home for an extra hour of sleep. I hung around though and so did the Preds. Wow!!! I was glad when they made it respectable at 4-2. I thought it was great when they went 4-3. I thought, “Maybe with the extra attacker…” Then they tied it immediately after!!! I went freaking “ape” among a sea of great. I was a mustard jumpin’ fool. Then, the shot that took everyone in the building by surprise (especially Josh Harding)! OMG!!! The Wild created a pretty good chance at the other end. The Preds were all smiles going into the tunnel. Probably one of the top ten comebacks I’ve seen by the Preds. I remember the one versus Detroit of course back in 03′. I think they had a good one against Ottawa in 08′ I want to say. The comeback versus Columbus and last night are also up there. I can’t wait to listen to Pete Weber call the comeback goals when it comes available to my blocked area on Game Center.