Pete Weber’s Postgame Report
Troy Brouwer scored with 1:05 to play in the third period, as the St. Louis Blues defeated the Nashville Predators by a 1-0 final on Tuesday night at Bridgestone Arena. The loss snapped Nashville’s win streak at four games, and also pushed their record against the Blues to 0-3-1 on the season.
“It was definitely disappointing,” forward Mike Fisher said. “[It was one] of those games where you’re trying to find one, and you know it would probably be the difference. They found a way late, and it’s frustrating for sure to not get that one when we feel like we were right there.”
Pekka Rinne’s sprawling save against Magnus Paajarvi early in the third period was one of a number of important stops from the Preds goaltender, but an Alex Pietrangelo shot deflected off of Brouwer and past Rinne to break the scoreless draw.
“We started to turn some pucks over in the neutral zone,” Fisher said. “I think we played a pretty good first period, and then some things crept in our game in the second. Turning pucks over, wasting energy in the wrong areas, and in the end, I think that was the difference.”
The Predators haven’t had much luck against the Blues this season, and Tuesday’s game was a case of Nashville not being able to produce much in the way of offense, registering just 16 shots on Brian Elliott.
“We didn’t do a very good job generating tonight,” Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “Some of that’s us, some of that is credit to them. They were really tight and really tough defensively. We knew it could be a game where there wasn’t a lot of scoring opportunities, and there weren’t a lot of goals. We were trying to stay patient with our game and continue to do the right thing and the smart thing, and we did it for 59 minutes.”
Nashville remains at home for their next game and will host Philadelphia on Thursday night, as they try to make up ground in the Central Division. Faceoff is set for 7 PM and Thunder Radio will bring you all the action on the Fifth Third Bank/Nashville Predators Radio Network
