*Photo from the Seattle Times*
On a night honoring the best goalie in team history, it was only fitting that his heir apparent helped get the win. Phillip Tomasino scored, Mikael Granlund scored, and the Nashville Predators defeated the Dallas Stars with a 2-1 win in a shootout on Thursday night in Nashville.
After a 4 game losing streak dropped the Predators to 4th place in the Central Division, they have returned a bit back to form, with two straight wins. The Predators record improves to 30-18-4 this season, still in 4th place in the Central, but they are gaining some momentum.
Before the game began, the Predators retired the number 35 worn by Pekka Rinne, who strutted his stuff in Nashville for 15 years. Rinne is in possession of most of the important team history goalie records, and helped lead the Predators on a Stanley Cup run, making the finals to end the 2016-2017 season, before losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 6 games. It was a perfect night for a Nashville win, and they took care of business.
Granlund said of the whole night that "It's been a special day obviously for Rinne, and we all love him so much. It was a special day for all of us and especially for Rinne and his family. But we were able to get those two points and that's all that matters. I'm just happy for tonight and I'm really happy for Rinne."
Starting the scoring for the Predators was Tomasino, who scored his 7th goal of the season at the 11:56 mark of the first period, making it a 1-0 Nashville lead on an assist from Dante Fabbro. The game then became tied at 1-1 when Jason Robertson scored his 22nd goal of the season, tying the game for the Stars just 1:21 into the second period.
Scoring didn't start again until the shootout. Matt Duchene, Filip Forsberg, and Roman Josi went scoreless for the Predators. Robertson, Joe Pavelski, Tyler Seguin, and Jacob Peterson couldn't score for the Stars. The only goal came from Granlund in the 4th round, giving Nashville the 2-1 win.
Predators head coach John Hynes said postgame that "You have to play your best in high-stakes games. Whether they are hyped-up games, or highly competitive games, or rivalry games, nationally televised games, whatever it is. If you are going to be a team that's going to be able to do anything, you have to play your best when the stakes are the highest and the stage is high."
The winning goalie for the Predators was the heir apparent to Rinne, Juuse Saros. In the win, Saros turned in a very vintage Rinne like performance. Saros stopped 27 of the 28 shots on goal from the Stars. That was good for a very strong .964 save percentage. With the win, Saros saw his record improve to 25-15-3 this season.
Across the ice, Jake Oettinger took the OT loss for the Stars, who somehow escaped with a point. Oettinger saved 19 of just 20 shots he faced from the Predators. That was good for a .950 save percentage, his record dropping to 16-6-1 in 23 starts.
Stars head coach Rick Bowness said of the game that "It's a good point. We deserved two. We outplayed them. Their goalie was the difference in the game. I thought we played our hearts out tonight. I was very happy with everything. The power play could have won us the game clearly, but our penalty killers were great tonight. Five-on-5 we were very good. We didn't give them any opportunities."
Up next, the Predators take on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday as part of the NHL stadium series, which will be posted about on Sunday. The Stars face off against the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday, with Oettinger likely to start.
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