After battling back to within a goal midway through the third period, the Chicago Blackhawks fell to the Nashville Predators 3-2 at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday night.
The opening stanza began in a less than ideal fashion for Chicago, with the Nashville Predators tallying the first goal of the game at the 3:16 mark. Filip Forsberg (who else) continued his dominance in Nashville’s offense with a put-back goal from the slot, and the Preds took an early 1-0 lead.
Chicago would tie the game about two minutes later after Alex DeBrincat fed a damn near perfect pass through five Predators for Tommy Wingels to fire home. The one timer from the slot tied the game, and was Wingels’ second goal of the season. As for The Cat, the apple was his fifth point in two nights.
Nashville would strike early in the second period, tallying a goal at 3:48 thanks to a re-direct off Austin Watson’s glove. An animated Coach Quenneville challenged the call for goaltender interference, but the goal would stand after video review. Take a look below, see if you agree with Q’s decision to challenge the play:
The #Blackhawks challenge goaltender interference as Watson made contact with Forsberg’s blocker. pic.twitter.com/HZDk0c3mEP
— Cristiano Simonetta (@CMS_74_) November 29, 2017
Nashville’s goal production in the first four minutes of each period continued into the third period as well, as Roman Josi rifled home a slap shot that deflected off Brent Seabrook’s shin pad to give the Preds a two goal lead.
After slugging through the rest of the first minutes of the third period, Lance Bouma lifted morale with a scrappy goal to pull Chicago within a goal at the 9:38 mark. Bouma’s second goal of the year was assisted by a great pass from behind the net by John Hayden, and suddenly the Hawks had life.
Despite GREAT offensive pressure from Chicago in the second half of the third period, Pekka Rinne shined with multiple key saves to keep Nashville (15-6-3) ahead till the bitter end.
Chicago falls to 12-9-3 on the year, and will face the Dallas Stars on Thursday night at the United Center.
NSH GOALS: Forsberg (12), Watson (3), Josi (6)
CHI GOALS: Wingels (2), Bouma (2)
3 thoughts
Nashville is still fast
The Preds seem to have found the “secret formula” when it comes to having fresh legs all game, as Nashville had no problem out-hustling the Blackhawks in tonight’s contest. Constant pressure on Anton Forsberg resulted in a handful of scoring chances for Nashville. While it doesn’t help that Chicago was playing on the back end of consecutive games, the Preds seemed to have more endurance all night.
Oh thank heaven for Jan Rutta
I’m growing into a BIG Jan Rutta fan as this season progresses. With the hectic schedule this week, it’s clear that Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook are no longer the “workhorses” for Joel Quenneville’s defense.
Enter Jan Rutta.
Riding on a one year contract, Jan Rutta is continuing to prove his worth game by game as he had the second-most ice time of any Chicago defenseman in the lineup tonight. Add on the eleven points he’s contributed on offense, and Jan Rutta could be the next piece in Chicago’s defensive puzzle moving forward.
Holy hell Pekka Rinne is still good
We kind of already knew this heading into tonight’s game, but man oh man did Rinne save the game late for Nashville. Chicago managed to put together a late rally thanks to their third and fourth line, but Rinne made a handful of big saves to seal the win for the Preds. The butterfly save with thirty seconds left on Tommy Wingels was undoubtedly the save of the game, and his 37 save performance was another solid performance for the goaltender.
3 stars
- Roman Josi – NSH (1 goal, game winning goal)
- Pekka Rinne – NSH (37 saves)
- Tommy Wingels – CHI (1 goal, 4 shots on goal)