• Tarasenko: NHL’s best playoff scorer
• Predators play a man short for second straight game
The Nashville Predators‘ perfect playoff run is finally over.
The St. Louis Blues scratched out a win in a hard-fought affair on Friday night and put the first crack in Nashville’s post-season armour. The Blues have managed to do something that the best-in-the-west Chicago Blackhawks were unable to do: put pucks past Pekka Rinne.
In the opening series, the Blackhawks managed to score three total goals en route to a swift four-game smashing by the Predators. The Blues, on the other hand, have managed to score three goals in each of the first two games of the Round 2 series.
The big difference-maker in the first series was Rinne, who managed to register an astronomical .976 save percentage, but through two games against the Blues he has only managed to stop 44 of 50 shots (.880).
The sudden lack of puck stoppage has finally put the longest playoff unbeaten streak of the year to an end.
The Predators won five straight games to start the 2017 NHL Playoffs. In comparison, no teams in 2016 managed to escape the first round undefeated and it wasn’t since 2015 that a team lasted more than five games before its first playoff loss when the Anaheim Ducks managed to win six straight.
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Tarasenko: NHL’s best playoff scorer
Vladimir Tarasenko scored two goals in the winning effort on Friday night and rocketed himself to the top of the list as the best playoff scorer among active players.
Tarasenko now has 22 goals in 40 career post-season games, which is an average of .55 goals per game. Alex Ovechkin is second (among players with at least 40 playoff games played) with .49 goals per game.
Although it is still early in his career, Taraskenko’s 22 are good enough for the third-most playoff tallies in franchise history. He is only 13 goals behind Bernie Federko, but he has a tall task ahead if he ever plans on surpassing Brett Hull, who sits at the top of the list with 67.
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Predators play a man short for second straight game
The Predators have been one of the most consistent teams in the playoffs this year. Through two games in the second round they have managed to do something else consistently: play with only 11 forwards.
After they lost Kevin Fiala to injury in Game 1, the Predators were again forced to play a man down in Game 2. As the first period neared its end on Friday, Game 1 hero Vernon Fiddler landed a nasty knee-on-knee hit on Blues defenceman Colton Parayko and the refs handed him a five-minute major and game misconduct.
For the second straight game, Nashville had to play with just 11 forwards.
The Predators got away with the loss of offence in the opening game, but they were not so lucky on Friday. Tarasenko tied the game at one during the five-minute major, and each time Nashville pulled ahead the Blues responded in kind before ultimately potting the winner with under five to go in the third.
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