San Jose Sharks Come Back To Down Predators
Logan Couture scored the lone goal in the shootout as the Sharks secured their 27th road win of the season.
After 40 minutes of play, the San Jose Sharks found themselves in an all too familiar position against the Nashville Predators. The Sharks trailed the home town Predators by two goals heading into the final frame.
However, two goals from Tomas Hertl sent the game to overtime and eventually a shootout, where Logan Couture found the back of the net to give San Jose a 3-2 victory on Saturday night.
In a fairly even first period, Nashville would strike first when Mike Ribeiro fed Shea Weber just inside the Sharks blue line who one-timed an absolute rocket past James Reimer for his 19th of the season. Reimer stood no chance as Weber had plenty of time to step into his blast.
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The Predators would seemingly take controls of things early in the second when a James Neal soft shot from the slot would deflect in off Calle Jarnkrok for his 15th of the season, giving Nashville a 2-0 lead. Jarnkrok has fared well against San Jose this year, finding the back of the net in all three meetings with team teal.
Reimer had to be sharp to keep things close, making 14 saves in the middle frame including a huge stop on Colin Wilson with just over three minutes to go in the second.
With Reimer holding the fort, the Sharks would take the game to the Predators in the third, outshooting Nashville by a 13-4 margin. San Jose would get on the board when Joe Thornton created a turnover at the blue line. He would feed Joe Pavelski whose shot was blocked by Roman Josi but Hertl followed up to snap one past Carter Hutton for his 20th of the campaign.
Then, with San Jose building momentum, Hertl would strike again midway through the final frame, this time tipping home a Brent Burns shot from the point to even things up and send this game into overtime.
The Sharks pushed for a winner, outshooting the Predators 5-1 in the extra-session, but couldn’t find a way past Hutton who made 38 saves in this one.
In the shootout, Couture would score on San Jose’s first attempt with a quick wrist shot through the five-hole, allowing Reimer to take things home from there. Reimer would stop Filip Forsberg, Ryan Johansen and finally, Craig Smith to seal the two points for the Sharks.
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The victory snapped a six-game skid for team teal at Bridgestone Arena, while extending Nashville’s losing streak to four games. San Jose pulled to within two points of Anaheim and three of Los Angeles as they continue to hunt down, although highly unlikely, home-ice in the first round.
The Sharks concludes the road portion of their schedule with a trip to Minnesota on Tuesday night to take on the Wild as San Jose looks to establish a new franchise record for most road wins in a single season.