The Colorado Avalanche took on their division rival in the Nashville Predators. Colorado is comfortably in a playoff spot, but Nashville is fighting for its postseason lives. The Avs last played on Monday, so the rust was clear for them at the beginning of the game. The Preds jumped right out of the gate to take it right to the Avs and split the season series and, to add to it, make the Avs suffer their first regulation loss on home ice.

View From the Mountaintop

The Predators did not wait to get the game started, scoring only 30 seconds into the game. Former Avs forward Ryan O’Reilly tapped the puck in from right in front of the net to get the lead right away.

Brock Nelson did not feel like waiting around very long either. Just one minute after the first goal, Brent Burns threw the puck at the net. Nelson spun to hit the rebound for his ninth goal in nine games and tie it at one.

Nelson continued to fight in front of the net with nine minutes left in the period. Josh Manson snapped a shot towards the net, and Nelson tipped the puck past Juuse Saros to tie it back up again.

After a lot of back-and-forth in the second, O’Reilly was fighting for position in front of the net with Girard. Luke Evangelista took the shot from the right point, and O’Reilly tipped the puck in for his seventh career hat trick to make it 3–2.

With two minutes left in the second, the puck came to Valeri Nichushkin on the blue line. Unfortunately, the puck bounced over Nichushkin’s stick, and Steven Stamkos took off with it. Stamkos sent a saucer pass to Michael Bunting, and he hammered it home.

Just over a minute into the third, the puck rolled along the Nashville boards. Nathan MacKinnon grabbed the puck and snapped a pass out to Martin Necas in the slot for a wicked wrist shot past Saros and make it 4–2.

Zakhar Bardakov was called for an interference penalty late in the third, and the Preds took 18 seconds to convert on the power play. Stamkos Michael McCarron both had empty net goals to make the final 7–3.

Takeaways

Nashville gained momentum at the start of the game and ran with it. The first and second goals for the Preds were the ones that killed morale for the Avs. The inability to change players in the second period also hurt Colorado. Nashville’s goal left Colorado feeling depleted.

Up Next

The Avalanche will take on the Washington Capitals on Monday at 2 p.m. MT. TNT will broadcast the game.