Coming off of a week sitting back and watching NHL playoff hockey take place around the league, the Nashville Predators were back in action on Friday night facing off against the Phoenix Coyotes at Jobing.com Arena in the opening game of their Western Conference Semi-finals series.
The rust showed early for the Predators as Phoenix frustrated Nashville with their defense and got out to an early lead using their counterattacking style to draw a penalty off a turnover in the neutral zone. On the ensuing power play, the Coyotes worked the puck around to Radim Vrbata standing in the faceoff circle to the right of Pekka Rinne. Holding onto the puck, Vrbata skated down towards the goal line looking for passing options until putting the puck on net beating Rinne with a wrist shot over his right shoulder. Despite continuing to struggle to find their game, the Predators took advantage of a bounce off the stanchion when Brandon Yip deposited Francis Bouillon’s dump-in that ricocheted out ...
Found April 28, 2012 on
Inside Smashville:
PLAYERS:
Radim Vrbata,
Pekka Rinne,
Brandon Yip,
Francis Bouillon,
Rostislav Klesla,
Craig Smith,
Roman Josi,
Hal Gill,
Patric Hornqvist,
Andrei Kostitsyn,
Mike Smith,
Mikkel Boedker,
Kevin Klein,
Martin Erat,
Ryan Suter,
Martin Hanzal,
Ray Whitney,
Shea Weber,
Boyd Gordon,
Michal Rozsival,
Gabriel Bourque,
Nick Spaling,
Alexander Radulov,
Paul Gaustad
TEAMS: Nashville Predators, Phoenix Coyotes
TEAMS: Nashville Predators, Phoenix Coyotes
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