The Nashville Predators lost 5-3 against the Buffalo Sabres Tuesday at Bridgestone Arena. They now sit three points behind the second wildcard spot in the Western Conference as they continue their push for the playoffs.
Ryan O'Reilly and Filip Forsberg tallied three points, Cole Smith recorded five hits, and Justus Annunen stopped all 13 shots faced on his shift.
"We dug ourselves in a hole that we couldn't get back out of...We're very good team and we think we had the momentum and took control of the game, but just the hole we dug was too deep. We're going to have times where we lose momentum and things don't go our way, but to do it for a full period, that's not us."Ryan O'Reilly, Predators YT
Buffalo [27-17-4] opened the scoring at 11:49 with a goal from Noah Ostlund. Konsta Helenius earned his first NHL point after setting up the play in front of Juuse Saros, dishing it over to Ostlund for the finish. It was his first of three NHL points he would tally Tuesday.
Ostlund followed up at 8:15 with another goal set up by Helenius. The Sabres' third line continued the pressure, taking advantage of a turnover and at 2:36, Helenius scored his first in the NHL. Nashville [23-22-4] walked into first intermission with a large hill to climb in the following period.
"[The Sabres] were faster, stronger. They won puck battles. I think it was pretty simple. We had a choice to make going into the second. It was either quit or actually start trying."Filip Forsberg, Predators YT
Even with a different mindset, Nashville couldn't keep up as Tage Thompson extended Buffalo to an assertive 4-0 lead at 15:40 in the second with his 26th of the season. Head Coach Andrew Brunette then made the decision to replace Saros with Annunen after he allowed four goals on 18 shot attempts.
Nashville finally got on the board at 9:51 after taking advantage of a delayed penalty call, with O'Reilly taking charge and wristing the puck past goalie Alex Lyon.
Forsberg scored the Predators second goal with an interesting shot angle along the left board after a turnover.
Now with the score within two, Nashville amped up their offense in the third. They recorded 14 shots alone in the final frame. O'Reilly made it 4-3 at 10:30 with his second goal and third point of the game.
With Annunen pulled for the extra attacker, forward Peyton Krebs capitalized on an empty net and wrapped it up with his own to make it 5-3 Buffalo.
"I think we weren't really ready to compete and took us a little while to get going. I thought they outworked us, they outcompeted us, they wanted it more than we did in the first period...We were lucky it was only three nothing. For some reason, sort of what happened near the end of the Vegas game carried into the first period tonight."Andrew Brunette, Predators YT
The Predators will stay within the Atlantic Division as they matchup against the Ottawa Senators Thursday at 7pm local time.