The Nashville Predators battled back from a one-goal deficit, but a milestone tally from Connor McDavid and a monster 3-point performance from Darnell Nurse lifted the Edmonton Oilers to a 3-2 overtime win Thursday at Rogers Place.
For the second straight game, the Predators gave up an early lead on the road, only to come from behind in the third period to tie it up and send it to overtime. Both of Nashville’s goals were scored by members of the fourth line, Michael McCarron and Cole Smith.
McDavid potted his sixth goal of the season in the second period for his 1,000th career NHL point. Nashville goalie Scott Wedgewood, who made a handful of big stops to keep the game close in the first two periods, finished with 31 saves.
How the Predators lined up vs. Edmonton
Forsberg – O’Reilly – Stamkos
Marchessault – Sissons – Nyquist
Tomasino – Pärssinen – Evangelista
L’Heureux – McCarron – Smith
Josi – Skjei
Lauzon – Carrier
Del Gaizo – Schenn
Wedgewood
Saros
Extra: Wilsby, Jankowski, Novak*
*Tommy Novak missed his fourth straight game and remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
Game Summary
The Predators got off to a rather sluggish start, forcing Wedgewood to come up with some big saves Roman Josi recorded Nashville’s first shot on goal just over eight minutes into the first period, and the puck was redirected into the net by Michael McCarron to give the Predators an early 1-0 lead.
Nashville picked up the pace and put pressure on the Oilers for the remainder of the first to keep Edmonton off the board but quickly unraveled in the second period, putting just four shots on goal and allowing Edmonton to dictate the pace of play. A failed dump-in by Jonathan Marchessault at 4-on-4 quickly turned into a 2-on-1 with McDavid and Leon Draisaitl versus Jeremy Lauzon, and Draisaitl passed to McDavid for the easy score.
The Oilers were buzzing after McDavid’s goal, which earned him 1,000 career points. Nurse scored his first goal of the season less than three minutes later on a tight-angle shot from Wedgewood’s right, and Nashville fell behind, 2-1.
Nashville trailed by one until 17:12 of the third period, when Cole Smith entered the zone and drove to the net to get a shot past Pickard to tie the game at 2-2 and send it to overtime.
Nurse scored at 2:32 of overtime off of a spinning pass from McDavid to put the game away and help the Oilers secure the season sweep of the Predators.
Key Takeaways
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