A second period collapse from the Nashville Predators ignited a hungry Utah Mammoth to come on top at Bridgestone Arena this Saturday, winning 5-2. A near empty upper bowl thanks to the cold weather barely sufficed an eager-to-win Predators squad.
Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault scored for Nashville, Roman Josi was awarded the silver stick, and Juuse Saros blocked 26 of 30 shots.
"You're begging for a good start, and I thought we had a really good start. And then we started losing our game a little bit. The last 5 or 7 minutes of the first...we're leaving pucks in the middle of the ice and kind of fed what [Utah's] looking for."Andrew Brunette, Predators YT
After allowing the away team to score first for the past two games, Nashville [24-23-4] finally got on the board first at 16:17. Josi dished over a puck to Stamkos on the powerplay, who promptly finished it with a one-timer.
A combination of great team defense and athletic saves from Saros allowed the home team to hold the 1-0 heading into the second period.
With three minutes of action played in the second, Clayton Keller tied the game for Utah [27-20-4] with his 16th goal of the year. It is now back-to-back games where Nashville has allowed a goal off a defensive zone faceoff.
"Losing battles, not winning faceoffs, just kind of puts us in a hole. It's tough...the puck, to start any faceoffs or any plays, especially against those top lines. [It] just feeds them and sparks them."Ryan O'Reilly, Predators YT
Michael Carcone broke the tied at 14:47 on the breakaway, despite being outnumbered three to one.
Three minutes later at 11:50, Kailer Yamamoto got a lucky bounce out front and extended the lead to 3-1.
Not wanting to end the period down by two, Jonathan Marchessault scored one off a spin around move in front of goaltender Karel Vejmelka. He now has goals in back-to-back games with the Predators since coming back from injury.
Things looked competitive in the third period as neither side could find the back of the net. That was until Barrett Hayton pocketed his 6th of the season at 8:58 for the Mammoth.
Head Coach Andrew Brunette pulled Saros with around three minutes left and at 1:32 in the final frame, JJ Peterka was awarded Utah's fifth and final goal after he was tripped by Michael Bunting on a breakaway towards the empty net.
"You put yourself in a position to get something out of it, and we didn't. A little reminiscent of different times earlier, where we didn't get that second goal. Then we got sloppy, and then we're chasing again. We'll have to rebound, go out on the road here and get to our game again."Andrew Brunette, Nick Kieser on X
With the hope that the weather will play nice, Nashville will travel to the East Coast to rally up against the Boston Bruins next Tuesday at TD Garden.