Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Veterans Lead Predators to 4-3 Win Over the Thrashers

David Legwand had the game winning goal and Marty Erat had two goals and an assist to lead the Nashville Predators to a 4-3 preseason victory over the Thrashers at Phillips Arena in Atlanta on Wednesday night.

It was a productive night for the veteran Predators with Ryan Suter having the other goal and an assist on Erat's second goal.

The biggest surprise of the evening was Barry Trotz's decision to allow Anders Lindback to play the full 60 minutes in spite of giving up three goals in the first two periods. Lindback stopped 25 of 28 shots for the game.

Before the game, Trotz had indicated that Lindback had a "slight edge" in his race for the back-up goalie slot with Mark Dekanich. I would imagine that by letting him stay in the game that was tied 3-3 after two to win or lose the game, Trotz was watching Lindback's compete level and resiliency after a second period that was not his best. My bet is that Dekanich will be headed to Milwaukee in the next day or two.

In the other competitions for positions, on defense, Aaron Johnson had two assists and no shots while Alexander Sulzer had three shots and no goals. In the forward race, Cal O'Reilly was 12-5 in the faceoff circle and was a (-1) with no shots. Jonas Andersson had a shot and was 0-1 in the circle.

The Predators were two out of three on the power play and gave up a short handed goal on the penalty kill's only opportunity.

The Preds out shot Atlanta 30- 28 and had a 55-47 edge in the Corsi column.

The Preds returned home after the game and will not play again until they travel to Washington for a Sunday afternoon game against the Capitals.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

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