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Preds Bounce Back to Beat Avalanche, Take 3-1 Series Lead
The Nashville Predators said they would be better in Game 4. Promise fulfilled.
A dominant start, followed by a final stand led the Preds to defeat the Colorado Avalanche, 3-2, to take a 3-1 series lead with a chance to finish things off in Game 5 back in Nashville.
After allowing three goals in the first period of Game 3, the Predators knew they needed an improved effort from the first moments of Game 4. An early 8-0 advantage in shots eventually brought about another jaw-dropping tally from Filip Forsberg, and although the Avalanche pushed back in the third period, the Preds have sent Colorado to the brink.
“It was a gutsy win, really good playoff hockey,” Preds forward Craig Smith said. “It was an exciting game, that’s for sure. We held on and got the win, and we get to go home now; just take care of ourselves and stay a little more disciplined.”
Forsberg put an exclamation point on a dominant 20 minutes from the visitors when he danced around a Colorado defender and deked his way past Jonathan Bernier to give the Preds their first 1-0 lead of the series.
Goals from Colton Sissons and Smith in the second stanza led to a 3-0 Nashville advantage after 40 minutes of play, and although Gabriel Landeskog and Alexander Kerfoot tallied for Colorado in the third period, Pekka Rinne and his mates kept Colorado at bay just enough to capture the victory.
“They’re a good team, they’re dangerous offensively and we knew they were going to have a punch,” Predators Captain Roman Josi said. “We’re happy about the win, and we found a way to get it.”
Nashville will now head home for an elimination game, a chance to advance to Round Two of the postseason for the third consecutive spring.
“It’s going to be another battle Friday night,” Josi said. “Every game is just tough. We have to make sure we go home, get some rest and bring our best.”
“It’s big to get one on the road,” Smith said. “We just checked in, made it count and that’s that.”
Bounce Back:
A day after being pulled from Game 3, Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne stated his confidence in his team’s ability to bounce back and steal one on the road before heading back to Nashville.
Not only was Rinne spot on in his prediction, he led the way.
The netminder made 31 saves on the night, and with the exception of a few offensive pushes in the third period, the Predators were stellar when they had to be.
“We did a really good job at the end there,” Rinne said. “We killed the clock pretty good at the end and did a really good job, but it was a battle tonight.”
Started by Forsberg’s third goal of the series, the Preds built a three-goal lead, exactly the start they were hoping for after trailing by four in Game 3. A bounce-back perfroemance was a major talking point in the Nashville locker room the day after, with the Preds set on finding a way to come out of Colorado with at least one win.
“We’re a pretty honest group about ourselves,” Josi said. “Even if we win games, there’s still things you’re trying to correct… It’s so important [to have a good start], and today it won us the game.”
Thanks to that solid start – and a heart-racing finish – the Preds have set themselves up to clinch their fourth series on home ice in the past two years. Those games are always the toughest to win, however, but there’s no denying what a bounce-back win like this can do for the club.
So, when Friday night rolls around, one could predict the Preds will find another level. That’s the plan, just as it was in Game 4.
“It’s huge to have a chance to do that and finish the series at home,” Rinne said. “That’s something that it’s in the back of your head and we want to take advantage of that.”
Notes:
After missing 16 games with an upper-body injury, forward Calle Jarnkrok returned to the Predators lineup in Game 4. Miikka Salomaki was scratched in Jarnkrok’s place.
Winger Colton Sissons has 11 points in his last 12 playoff games since Game 5 of the Western Conference final, including a goal tonight.
Austin Watson extended his point streak to five games, but saw his career-high, four-game goal streak come to an end.
The Preds and Avs will now head back to Nashville for Game 5, which comes Friday night at Bridgestone Arena, an 8:30 p.m. CT puck drop.
Weekend Prep Results & Monday Schedule
Friday Prep Results
> CHS Boys’ Soccer defeated Belton Honea Path, SC – 2 to 1 – See the story HERE
> CHS Baseball lost to Glenbrook South, IL – 5 to 1 – See the story HERE
> CHS Baseball edged Lake Park, IL – 3 to 2 – See the story HERE
> CHS Boys’ Soccer fell to Myrtle Beach, SC – 7 to 0 – See the story HERE
> WMS Baseball fell to MTCS – 12 to 8 – See the story HERE
Saturday Prep Results
> CHS Baseball lost to Blackman– 2 to 1 – See the story HERE
Monday Prep Schedule
4:00 PM – CCMS Tennis at Warren Co
4:00 PM – CHS Tennis HOSTS Tullahoma
4:00 PM – WMS Tennis at Tullahoma
4:00 PM – CCMS Golf HOSTS Tullahoma
4:00 PM – WMS Golf HOSTS Fayetteville
5:00 PM – CCMS Softball at South Franklin
5:00 PM – CHS Baseball(JV) HOSTS Central Magnet
5:30 PM – WMS Softball at Community
6:00 PM – WMS Baseball HOSTS Fayetteville
6:00 PM – CHS Softball HOSTS Cascade
CHS Baseball Falls at Blackman on Saturday
Jacob Langham of CHS baseball
Despite outhitting Blackman, a 7th inning rally came up short as the Coffee County baseball team fell to Blackman on Saturday evening. The 2 to 1 loss left the Red Raiders with a 1 and 2 record for the tournament against the best competition they have faced this season. As the Red Raiders return to district play on Tuesday, they do so sporting an overall record of 9 and 3 with a district mark of 5 and 1.
On Saturday night, pitchers Scottie Duke and Skylar Bratcher tossed a 4 hitter allowing a single earned run. Coffee County managed 7 hits but got runners in scoring position in 5 of the first 6 innings including leaving the bases loaded in the 5th inning. The Raiders broke through in the 7th inning with 3 straight singles. Jacob Langham scored on a passed ball. A double play and a strikeout ended the Coffee County rally.
Langham led the team with 3 singles as he scored the lone run for Coffee County. A.J. Rollman added a pair of singles. Hayden Skipper and Nathanial Tate collected the other 2 hits for Coffee County.
The Red Raiders will return to the diamond on Tuesday when they travel to Tullahoma to begin next week’s 2 game series with the Wildcats. Tullahoma visits Powers Field for Game #2 on Wednesday. Both games will get underway at 6 PM.
CHS Anglers Compete at Kentucky Lake
A pair of boats from the Coffee County Youth Bass Club captured Top 50 finishes on Saturday on Kentucky Lake. Fishing out of Birdsong Marina, the Tennessee Bass Nation High School held the 5th tournament of the season. The team of Brandon and Dawson Wells captured a 17th place finish and the team of Isaac Turner and Cam Rutledge came home with a 48th place finish out of 122 teams from across the state.
The Wells brothers netted a pair of fish with a total weight of 5.99 pounds. The 3 pound average was only 12 ounces out of the Top 10. Isaac Turner and Cam Rutledge came home with a 48th place finish as they landed 1 fish weighing in at 1.81 pounds.
The Coffee County Youth Bass Club will hit the water again on Saturday, April 21st for the final region tournament of the year. The Raider anglers will be on Old Hickory Lake as they will put in at Bull Creek Boat Ramp near Gallatin. The tournament will begin at daybreak.
Forsberg Leads Bounce-Back Effort as Preds Beat Lightning
Filip Forsberg
Don’t look now, but Filip Forsberg is heating up.
Forsberg scored twice and added an assist as the Nashville Predators defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning by a 4-1 final on Sunday night at Amalie Arena. The victory bumps the Preds to 113 points on the season, a three-point lead over the entire League, and gives them their 51st victory of the campaign, tied for their highest single-season total in club history.
Forsberg now has six points in his last two games, and with a pair of goals on Sunday, including one that will be shown over and over in the coming days, that’s good news for a club gearing up for another postseason run.
“When I watch him play, you watch that [second] goal, he kicked it into another gear and that’s when he’s on his game,” Predators Head Coach Peter Laviolette said of Forsberg. “When he’s playing fast, when he’s dangerous with his shot, when he plays like a power forward, he becomes really hard to defend.”
And it wasn’t just Forsberg who caused problems for the Lightning, as the Preds rebounded from a lackluster effort less than 24 hours earlier to beat one of the League’s best.
“The guys played smart, and that’s all on them,” Laviolette said. “They had a meeting, they weren’t happy with it and they straightened it out. They played a smart, hard game, especially with the turnaround. Twenty hours later, we’re back in our gear, so it was a good win.”
It was Ryan Johansen, who gave the Predators a 1-0 lead in the first period, when he kept and sniped on a 2-on-1 for his 14th goal of the season. Forsberg made it 2-0 in the second stanza when a fortunate bounce gave him goal No. 22 of the campaign, but before the period was out, Ondrej Palat beat Juuse Saros to get the Lightning on the board.
Forsberg’s second of the evening was one for the highlight reel as the winger took it himself, skated around Bolts defenseman Dan Girardi and beat Andrei Vasilevskiy along the ice to give his club a 3-1 lead. Craig Smith scored the fourth Nashville goal on a partial break, and that was more than enough get the Preds back on the right side of the ledger, thanks in part to No. 9.
“Oh my goodness, unbelievable,” Johansen said of Forsberg’s second strike. “I couldn’t do that if I tried a thousand times. I was in shock on the ice. I don’t know if anybody caught my face, but I was just like, ‘Wow.’ When he’s going, he’s a big time threat out there and a great time for him to start ramping his game up.”
The Predators will now enjoy a well-deserved day off on Monday before skating in the final three games of their season, a chance to clinch the division, the conference and the League.
Nashville’s magic number to clinch the Central Division is two points, meaning if the Winnipeg Jets fall in regulation to the Ottawa Senators on Monday night, the Predators will claim their first Central crown in franchise history.
“We can put [Saturday’s game] right behind us now and just move forward,” Johansen said. “We’ll take a day here tomorrow, get some sunshine and a little vitamin D and get back to work.”
Best of the Best:
It wasn’t difficult for the Predators to get up for this one.
As they headed into Tampa Bay on Sunday evening, just one night removed from a 7-4 defeat at the hands of the club at the bottom of the NHL standings, Nashville skated their way to a 4-1 victory over the third-place club in the League.
“This is a big win,” Forsberg said. “It was a good test for us going up against one of the top teams, and I think we played really good hockey. This is what it’s going to be in the playoffs, just really tough hockey, especially here on the road, and I think we did a good job with that.”
With the postseason looming, a chance to go head to head against a club that could find themselves coming out of the Eastern Conference at the end of May provided quite a gauge for a team hoping to do the same in the West.
And the Preds rose to the challenge, inching closer to their first division title in the process.
“This game was definitely circled on our calendar for a long time,” Johansen said. “We knew this was a great test for us and we’re near the playoffs here and how we match up against these guys. Tonight, we got the better of it. It was a fun game, fun game to be a part of and a great performance by our team.”
Notes:
Forward Viktor Arvidsson did not dress for Sunday’s game and is day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
Nashville’s road trip in the Sunshine State continues on Tuesday when they take on the Florida Panthers (at 6:30 p.m. CT) before heading north to Washington for a date with the Capitals on Thursday (now televised on NBCSN).
Pete Weber’s Postgame Report
4/3/18 — Wilda Jean Bean
Wilda Jean Bean, 83, passed away, Sunday April 1, 2018 at her
home with her family at her bedside. She was born in Hillsboro, Tennessee
on November 15, 1934 to Emmitt C. Brown and Claytia Baker Brown who
preceded her in death along with her sisters, Ollie Mae Casteel and Bertia
Clay Croslin; husband, Louie Bean.
She was a member of the First Baptist Church in Manchester and currently
worked at First National Bank in Manchester.
She is survived by her daughter, Diane (Bob) Argraves, Manchester and
Barbara Hambrick, Tullahoma; sisters, Juanita Rogers and Elwanda Swinford;
5 grandchildren; 8 great grandchildren; several nieces and nephews.
Graveside funeral services will be 10:00 AM Tuesday at the Fredonia
Cemetery in Manchester with Dr. Brenton Cox officiating. Visitation: 5:00
PM – 9:00 PM Monday and 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Tuesday in the parlors of
Central Funeral Home, Manchester, Tennessee. www.centralfuneralhome.com
Arrangements with Central Funeral Home
Weir Trial Delayed Again
File Photo – Brad Weir
The 47-year-old Weir is facing a 16-count indictment after being charged with having sex with a 15-year-old Coffee County student in 2015.
The trial never started on Monday because Weir’s attorney reported to District Attorney General Craig Northcott that Weir was unable to be in court because Weir had suffered a gunshot wound to his leg on March 18.
Former Tullahoma High School Co-Band Director to sentenced May 24
Martin Drew McFarlane jail intake photo.
McFarlane was indicted on Aug. 22, 2017 by a federal grand jury on charges of transportation of child pornography. The indictments came about after a search by the FBI and Tullahoma Police at his residence on Castle Walk in Tullahoma for the pornography.
In last week’s court action, McFarlane’s attorney filed a motion asking that he be allowed to remain free on bond and is “attending a 16-week therapy program which began Jan. 29.” In a motion to the court the attorney writes that “this intensive program was recommended to McFarlane as well as that he continue his individual counseling both of which he is doing.” The 16-week therapy program ends May 21.
The motion states that information on all of McFarlane’s counseling will provide unique insight for the court when imposing a sentence “that is sufficient but not greater than necessary” for the case. The attorney stated in the motion to the court that the counseling is to provide “appropriate assistance of counsel to McFarlane.”
Judge Mattice granted the delay and set Thursday May 24 at 1 p.m. (CT) in the federal courthouse in Chattanooga.
Assistant United States Attorney James Brooks is prosecuting the case.
Motor Home Fire Shut Down I-24 early Saturday Morning
Early Saturday morning on Interstate 24 westbound at mile-marker 118 a motor home caught fire and shut down the interstate for several hours. Traffic was backed up to mile-marker 123 and Tennessee Highway Patrol Troopers diverted traffic off the interstate at the Pelham exit and onto Hillsboro Hwy.
The motor-home was driven by a man from Illinois and was complete loss. No injuries were reported.
The THP, Coffee County Deputies and Hillsboro Fire Department responded.
Warren County Ambulance involved in Saturday Crash
Two Warren County EMS employees were injured Saturday when the ambulance in which they were traveling crashed into another vehicle on Interstate 24 in Nashville.
Police say 57 year-old Henry DeKort of McMinnville was driving the ambulance eastbound on I-24 when the ambulance crashed into a Nissan Altima that was stopped on the shoulder due to an accident that had occurred just moments earlier.
DeKort and his passenger, 23 year-old Savannah Cleek of Palmer, TN were transported to Southern Hills Medical Center, where they were treated and released for non-life threatening injuries. The driver of the Nissan, 29 year-old Cornelius Hurt, suffered critical injuries and was transported to Vanderbilt Hospital.
The crash happened Saturday morning at around 4:20 near the Haywood Lane exit.