The Nashville Predators overcame their troublesome stretch of second period letdowns and ignited their offense late for a 6-2 win in Game Two on Friday night.
A 3-2 advantage entering the third period became a six-goal outburst following three scores in under three minutes near the end of regulation, as the Preds took down the Chicago Blackhawks to even their Western Conference Quarterfinals series at one apiece.
Nashville entered the contest down in the series after 
a 4-3 double overtime defeat, but the Predators showed they’d put the tough loss in the past by jumping out to an early lead.
“I thought we played a real solid game,” defenseman Roman Josi said. “We came out with a lot of energy in the first period again. We kept that energy over 60 minutes and had a great [result].”
Colin Wilson began Game Two in a very familiar way. The center potted his third of the playoffs by again going top shelf, short side on Corey Crawford to put Nashville ahead 1-0.
Roughly 16 minutes later, Josi’s individual effort put the Predators back ahead just before the first-period horn after Patrick Sharp had tied the contest. The defenseman caught a pass near the bench and weaved his way around two Hawks defenders prior to wiring a wrister into the cage with four seconds left. The home team’s strong first period performance wasn’t wasted as they held a 2-1 advantage on the scoreboard after 20 minutes.
When the dreaded second period began, the Predators made quick work of a four-minute penalty kill and answered the Hawks’ tying goal to maintain a one-goal edge through two periods. Including Chicago’s three-goal effort in the middle frame in Game One, Nashville had been outscored 17-3 in the second over their last 10 games prior to Friday.
Finally, in the third, goals from Filip Forsberg, Mike Santorelli and Craig Smith’s second of the evening sent the Predators out on a high note and set a franchise record for tallies in a postseason contest in front of a raucous 17,208 at Bridgestone Arena.
“Man, I didn’t think we’d top Game One to be honest, but tonight was ridiculous,” Nashville D-man Seth Jones said. “The atmosphere was so awesome. It was so loud you could barely talk to your teammates on the bench. You’re screaming to each other just trying to talk about plays or the things you have to do on the ice. The atmosphere was like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”
“It’s big, you can see it as a result of our hard work,” Smith said. “We stayed with it, pressured the puck and created turnovers. We keep that up and good things are going to happen. We had a lot of people chipping in. Everyone on the bench was having a lot of fun. At the same time, we played good hockey. As a result of it, you can see our hard work was just phenomenal tonight.”
The series now shifts to Chicago where the Predators will try to build upon not only their first victory in the series, but dating back to the regular season, the first win in their previous eight games.
By Thomas Willis – NashvillePredators.com (@TomAWillis)