Plus: James Reimer
Reimer stopped all 21 shots he saw in the first 40 minutes. With the Canes up a three-spot heading into the third period, it was a given that the Predators were going to come with a push - and push they did. Reimer, though, made the saves he needed to make, as he faced 17 shots in the final 20 minutes alone. The Canes held onto their lead, and Reimer finished the night with 36 saves.
"They were on full-court press and coming at us. He made two or three great stops," Brind'Amour said. "Any successful team is going to have goaltending that comes up big when they need it."
And, hey, maybe it was a ploy all along to get Lorentz the game-winning goal.
"That was the game plan going into the third. He got his first one, so that's special, but you want it to be the game-winner," Reimer smiled. "I knew I had to let two in, so that was the plan."
Minus: The third period
The final stanza is the glaring minus in the game, as the Canes nearly lost a lead for the third straight game. But, the pushback was a given, and in the final period of a stretch of three games in four nights and the tail-end of a back-to-back with travel? Shrug off the two goals, take the two points, clean up a couple of mishaps and move on.
"I'm happy. We won. We dominated for two periods. The other team gets paid a lot of money, and they're going to come out and play hard in the third period. I'll take this all day long," Brind'Amour said. "There's absolutely zero to be negative about."
"I think we'd rather win 10-0. You never like to give up a lead in the third," Reimer said. "We bent but didn't break. The character we have in here to dig and dig and dig … it's incredible, and again tonight, we found a way. When it comes down to it, that's the most important thing."
