Predators 5, Blackhawks 1 – Recap

By Kevin Schroeder
- Tweet
- Pin It
Updated: December 11, 2015

Scoring

1^st Period

6:54 NSH Neal (Weber, Ribeiro)

15:56 NSH Smith (Arvidsson)

16:33 NSH Forsberg (PP)(Josi, Jarnkrok)

2^nd Period

None

3^rd Period

5:43 CHI Kane (Kruger, Keith)

14:55 NSH Neal

18:46 NSH Nystrom (EN)

Penalties

1^st Period

8:36 NSH Jackman: 5 min. – Fighting against Shaw

8:36 CHI Shaw: 5 min. – Fighting against Jackman

11:02 NSH Arvidsson: 2 min. – Tripping against Kane

16:14 CHI Kruger: 2 min. – Hooking against Hodgson

20:00 NSH Gaustad: 5 min. – Fighting against Desjardins

20:00 CHI Desjardins: 5 min. –Fighting against Gaustad

2^nd Period

7:07 NSH Jackman: 2 min. – Illegal check to head against Shaw

3^rd Period

17:03 NSH Salomaki: 2 min. – Interference against Shaw

A horrible first period killed the Hawks. Everyone on the team owes Darling an apology for that, because Darling was excellent, but that’s not going to show up on the score sheet because Nashville kept getting great chances. I’m not exaggerating when I say that without Darling being as good as he was in the first, it could have been 6-0 going into the first intermission.

The Hawks picked it up after that. They got a few nice chances in the second and early in the third that Rinne stopped. A few better bounces and Anisimov would’ve had a hat trick. The Hawks finally broke through when Kruger spotted the puck not totally covered by Rinne and poked it loose, allowing Kane to pick it up and put it into the back of the net. Then, later in the period, with the Hawks trying to battle back, Kane coughed the puck up, Neal picked it up, and fired it past Darling to pretty much close it out. Nashville added an empty netter and now we move on to the next one.

My picks for 3 stars:

★★★ Filip Forsberg, LW, NSH (1 G)

★★ Pekka Rinne, G, NSH(35 SV, 1 GA)

★ James Neal, RW, NSH (2 G)

Twitter: @KSchroeder2325

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com