Photo - Nashville Predators
Ryan Ellis tallied a goal and an assist and the Nashville Predators defeated the Arizona Coyotes in a shootout, 3-2, on Thursday night at Bridgestone Arena. It’s Nashville’s fourth consecutive victory and gives them 60 points on the season, good enough to retake first place in the Central Division.
It looked as though the last-place team in the League might collect their second win of the season in as many tries over the Preds, but Ellis’s late heroics, coupled with goals from Kyle Turris and Craig Smith in the shootout ensured the home team could collect two more points in the standings.
The game’s first two periods almost went scoreless, but with less than two minutes to play in the middle frame, Ellis fed Scott Hartnell on a breakaway and the veteran forward deked around goaltender Antti Raanta to pot his 100th goal in a Preds jersey and give his club a 1-0 lead. But just moments after Hartnell’s tally, Oliver Ekman-Larsson beat Pekka Rinne with 12 seconds to play to even the score after 40 minutes.
Brendan Perlini gave Arizona their first lead of the night with less than eight minutes to play in regulation, but a blast from Ellis at 17:24 of the third found its way to the back of the net. After a number of Nashville chances in overtime, the Preds solved Raanta twice more, while Rinne stopped three of the four shooters he faced to collect his 22nd win of the season.
(Courtesy Nashville Predators)
