Ingram Stellar in Net as Preds Fall to Avalanche in OT to Finish Game 2

Connor Ingram made 49 saves, but the Nashville Predators fell to the Colorado Avalanche in overtime by a 2-1 final in Game 2 on Thursday night at Ball Arena. The result sees the Preds trail by a 2-0 count in the Round One series with Games 3 and 4 ahead in Nashville.
Yakov Trenin scored the lone goal for the Predators on the night, and Ingram, who made the first postseason start of his career, produced one of the more epic playoff performances from a Nashville goaltender in franchise history.
But ultimately, the Preds were unable to tally for a second time, and the visitors were left with a result they were hoping to avoid before heading home.

"I don't think it really matters individually at this point," Ingram said when asked of his emotions following the loss. "I mean, it's a playoff series. If you don't come out with wins it doesn't really add up to much, and that's the beauty of playoffs. For Game 1, it was 7-2, today it's 2-1. On Saturday it'll be a brand new day again. That's the beauty of it. We can pack this one away and move on to the next one."
"Connor played great," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "He had a great goaltending performance tonight. He made lots of saves at key times, and it was nice to see him be able to play to his ability. Against a high-powered offensive team you're going to need excellent goaltending to be able to win games. He certainly provided that tonight."
Nathan MacKinnon gave Colorado a 1-0 lead when he beat Ingram short side just over five minutes into Game 2, but before the opening period was out, Trenin converted on a 2-on-1 and snapped a shot past Darcy Kuemper for his first of the postseason to even the score.
Both clubs traded chances in the second stanza, and Ingram made 21 saves in the period for the Preds, and then Nashville's netminder stopped 13 more Avalanche shots in the final frame to single handedly lead his club to overtime.
"Unreal," Preds defenseman Alexandre Carrier said of Ingram's performance. "I played with him a few seasons in Milwaukee, I know what he's capable of, and I think we all saw it tonight. He was calm, even though obviously they were buzzing. But he stayed calm, his positioning was unreal and even with screens he found a way to find the puck. I think he played a hell of a game. It was unreal."

Ingram then made eight more saves in the extra session, but at 8:31 of OT, Cale Makar's shot found a way into the twine to send the Predators home without a win through two games to start the series.
"Overtime loss, sometimes in overtime, you never know what can happen," Carrier said. "They can get a bounce and it can go in. Obviously they had too many Grade-A chances, and we've got to limit those and still have to find a way to close on them, not give them as much time. But I think it was a better game than our first one, obviously. We've got to find a way to reward our goaltenders to make those saves."
Now, the Preds will travel back to Tennessee down two games in the series, and they simply have no choice but to prepare for the next meeting. The Predators were in the same situation last season having dropped two games to Carolina before rallying to win Games 3 and 4.
They'd love to do the same this time around, and if Ingram gets the call again and puts forth another performance like Thursday's, they certainly have a chance.
"Just get ready for Game 3," Hynes said when asked what the message is heading home. "We've had lots of opportunities. A lot of guys that were here last year went into Carolina, lost the first two games in Carolina and won the next two at home and extended the series. This is what it is. We've just got to get ready for Game 3. You have to be a better team going into Game 3 than you were in Game 2, and that's what our objective is."
"I think we still have better," Carrier said. "It was better than that first game, but we all know in this room that we've got better. They have a hell of a team on the other side as well. You've got to respect those guys. I think that the crowd here was a lot as well. We're excited to go home and get the energy from our crowd and get better."

Notes:

Predators defenseman Jeremy Lauzon returned to the lineup from his lower-body injury and took the place of Matt Benning. Forward Eeli Tolvanen made his series debut in place of Philip Tomasino. Defensemen Ben Harpur and Philippe Myers, as well as forward Matt Luff, were also scratched for the Preds in Game 2. Goaltender Juuse Saros missed his second game of the playoffs - and fourth-straight overall - with a lower-body injury.
With the first two meetings now complete, the series between the Preds and the Avs will now shift to Nashville for Games 3 and 4. The first of those contests will come Saturday afternoon at Bridgestone Arena for a 3:30 p.m. CT start; Game 4 is set for Monday night at 8:30 p.m. CT.