Preds Fall Short in 3-2 Loss to Canucks

The Nashville Predators had two late power-play chances but were unable to capitalize in the final minutes of regulation, falling to the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 on Tuesday at Bridgestone Arena.

Juuse Saros made 21 saves for the Predators, who lost for the first time in three games and moved to 3-4-0 on the season.

Ilya Mikheyev got the Canucks on the board with his first goal of the season, beating Saros from distance to give Vancouver a 1-0 lead at 4:29 of the first period.

Colton Sissons responded for the Preds with an unassisted snipe in front of the net to even things up at 1-1 heading into the first intermission. 

Vancouver struck back just 22 seconds into the middle frame with a backhander from Phillip Di Giuseppe that put the Canucks back on top, 2-1. The Canucks took their first two-goal lead of the night less than three minutes later thanks to Nils Hoglander, who tipped in a Quinn Hughes point shot to make it 3-1.

The Preds got back within one when a misplay by Vancouver led to an odd-man rush that saw Tommy Novak find Kiefer Sherwood in the left face-off circle for a beautiful one-timer that cut Nashville’s deficit to 3-2.

PREDS STANDOUTS

UnaSISSted: Sissons’ first-period goal was his fourth of the season, tying him with Novak for the team lead. A North Vancouver native, Sissons now owns 10 points (6g-4a) in 21 career games against the Canucks.

Sher Thing: Sherwood’s goal was his second in as many games. Novak dished out his first assist of the season on the play.

THEY SAID IT

Sissons on Nashville’s effort in the loss:

“I don't really think our offensive game was the issue. It was just a little sloppy and disjointed for the first two periods. We couldn't really get any momentum going. There were little flashes of some good hockey in the second, but not enough.”

Sissons on how Nashville defended against Vancouver:

“Obviously, it's a pretty good team over there in terms of the offensive stuff that they bring to the table. They did not make it easy on us. They rimmed a lot of pucks out, got a lot of pucks around the yellow, and it was tough to get possession back into our hands. So kudos to them. We were blocking shots and doing our best, but they just had the puck too much.”

Sissons on scoring four goals through the first seven games:

“It's great. It's always good to have some confidence early in the season. But it always feels better after a win; I'll tell you that.”

Sherwood on the loss:

“I think they did to us what we want to do to other teams. We’ve just got to figure out our starts because we’re clawing our way back and I think these are early lessons in the year that we're going to make adjustments so that when push comes to shove later on, we have the advantage. [We were] a little sloppy. We didn't win enough battles that the blue lines, and the blue lines are critical here. So we’ve got to clean some stuff up and get ready for Saturday.”

Head Coach Andrew Brunette on his assessment of the game:

“I didn't particularly like our first two periods. Credit to them – I thought they played in our faces. We just didn’t get to our game. Part of that is battles, part of that is execution, part of that is moving our feet – we did neither of those things tonight the first two periods. We got to it a little bit in the third, had a couple power plays to make a play, and we didn't make a play tonight.”

Brunette on Nashville’s second-period struggles:

“We were trying to find our game a little bit. The bouncing puck kind of took the wind out of our sails a little bit and we seemed to kind of have a hard time getting back to it a little bit. Again, credit to them – I thought they tracked extremely hard. They did to us what we would have liked to do to them, and they deserved to win. We didn't deserve to be in that game.”

Brunette on what went wrong for Nashville:

“I don't think it was anything structural. I just think it was about will, and we fell a little bit short. It wasn't like we didn't want it, but they wanted it a little bit more.”

UP NEXT

The Predators conclude their three-game homestand on Saturday when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs at Bridgestone Arena. The puck drops at 6 p.m. CT, and the game will be broadcast on Bally Sports South, 102.5 The Game and El Jefe Radio. Click here for tickets.