Pete Weber’s Postgame Report
Joe Pavelski scored the tie-breaking goal with 2:40 left in the third period, and the San Jose Sharks defeated the Nashville Predators 3-2 in Game 2 of their Western Conference Second Round series at SAP Center on Sunday.
San Jose’s Martin Jones made 37 saves, and Logan Couture scored a power-play goal in the second period. Joe Thornton had an empty-net goal with 55.6 seconds remaining.
Defenseman Mattias Ekholm scored with 7:04 remaining in the third period to tie the game 1-1, and Ryan Johansen scored with 3.6 seconds left and goaltender Pekka Rinne off the ice for an extra attacker.
Pavelski’s goal, his sixth of this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, gave the Sharks a 2-1 lead. He knocked a rebound past Rinne, who couldn’t control the puck after stopping Matt Nieto’s shot from the left circle. Nieto and Thornton got the assists.
The Sharks took a 1-0 lead at 18:36 of the second period when Couture scored a power-play goal on San Jose’s 16th shot of the game. Rinne stopped Pavelski’s deflection of Brent Burns’ shot from the point but couldn’t control the rebound, and Couture scored from close range.
The Sharks scored 33 seconds after Nashville was penalized for having too many men on the ice. Defenseman Roman Josi, trying to prevent the penalty, came off the ice and over the boards onto San Jose’s bench, to no avail.
The goal was Couture’s fourth of the playoffs and San Jose’s eighth with the extra man. The Sharks went 2-for-3 on the power play in their 5-2 victory against Nashville in Game 1.
The Predators went 0-for-3 on the power play and are 2-for-31 in the playoffs.
Nashville pulled even on Ekholm’s goal. The defenseman beat Jones with a straightaway wrist shot from a few feet inside the blue line that went through traffic and caught the upper right corner.
Nashville forward Craig Smith returned to the lineup after missing Game 1 with a lower-body injury. Smith, who usually plays on the second line, missed most of Game 2 and all of Games 3 and 4 in the Predators’ first-round series against the Anaheim Ducks.
The best-of-7 series now returns to Nashville for Game #3 on Tuesday with a face off scheduled for 8 PM. Thunder Radio will bring you that broadcast as part of the Fifth Third Bank/Nashville Predators Radio Network.
