Predators take 2-1 series lead, beating St. Louis Blues 3-1

Playing their best game of the series on Sunday, the Nashville Predators regained control of their Western Conference semifinal with the St. Louis Blues.

St. Louis Blues goaltender Jake Allen can only watch as the puck goes into the goal off the stick of Calgary Flames Troy Brouwer in the first period at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis on March 25, 2017.

The Nashville Predators continue to dominate the NHL Playoffs with a 3-1 win over the St. Louis Blues Sunday afternoon at Bridgestone Arena. For the Blues to be successful, they need him to play the primary goal-scoring role; Allen’s otherworldly opening round allowed the Blues to get away with a quiet Tarasenko, but as the playoffs progress, St. Louis needs him at his best. Jaden Schwartz scored at 6:48 and just under three minutes later, Vladimir Sobotka found the net with the equalizer. “Responded really well. It’s a good feeling obviously, but you already start thinking about the next one and trying to keep this momentum going”. They had timely goal scoring and remarkable goaltending versus Minnesota, and we had some concerns about counting on that approach after Game 2.

It was the first lead for St. Louis in 116:09 of the series.

Rinne finished with 22 saves, including a flurry of stops to preserve the win. “He has a great shot for a reason”. Buzzing the St. Louis zone at will, the Predators fired 15 shots in that span at Jake Allen, who stopped 14 of them and single-handedly kept his team in contention.

Game 3 is Sunday in Nashville.

It is already been an National Hockey League postseason of note, as the Detroit Red Wings have missed the playoffs for the first time in almost 25 years.

“We scored one goal tonight and fact of the matter is, we weren’t even competitive”, explained head coach Mike Yeo. Even so, he has shown incredible patience for a second-year player and got involved in the offense plenty in Game 1. The over/under total for the game is listed at 5 goals. But three seconds after Reaves exited the box, Nashville’s Ryan Ellis buried his third goal of the post-season for a 1-0 lead with 9:26 remaining in the period.

Defenseman Ryan Ellis got the Predators started with the first goal of the game. “We shot ourselves in the foot, we didn’t do our part to win that game”.

Lehtera tied it at 7:39.

James Neal and Ryan Ellis scored to give the Predators a 2-1 lead.

It marked the first time in franchise history that the Predators have held a lead in the second series.

Like the Capitals, I expect Sidney Crosby’s Penguins to follow the fate they sent the Capitals to and come up just short to the Rangers in overtime of game six, while the Predators make quick work of the Ducks. “I’ve got to be aware of when he’s on the ice”. Subban’s goal came just seconds after a scary incident, as Kevin Fiala crashed hard into the endboards and was taken off the ice on a stretcher. It put 34 shots on net to St. Louis’ 23 and had a 59-48 advantage in total shots on the day.

I think the last two statistics help better explain why both teams won in Round 1 as they significantly reduced the quality chances given up.

While regular season games are nice, much like the tickets to the game that Republic-Monitor publisher Beth Durreman was gracious enough to purchase for me at the end of the season.