PREDS COME OUT ON TOP OF COLUMBUS 3-1.

Puck at the feet of Josh Gratton as Frederik Norenna goes down for the save

Shea Weber shoots in the third period

Tonight turned out well for the Preds. They put things away half-way through the 3^rd going three up on Columbus.

For most of the youngsters, it would be their last NHL game for a while. Geoff Peters, Mark Santorelli, Nick Spaling, Kelsey Wilson, and Teemu Laakso were all sent down to the Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League. The Admirals start training camp on Tuesday. Jonathan Blum is going back to his team in Vancouver in the Western Hockey League.

The Preds took the lead early. At 11:18 into the 1^st, Patric Hornqvist took a pass off of Ryan Suter to fire in the first goal of the game. Throughout the rest of the 1^st and all through the 2^nd, the score remained 1-0. Finally, only 1:49 into the 3^rd period, Antti Pihlstrom deflected a shot from Radek Bonk right by Fredrik Norrena. Following that at 9:20 in the period, Shea Weber sniped one from the blue line into the net. A few minutes later at 5:43, Derek Dorsett of the Columbus Blue Jackets got a nice deflect off of a pass from Ole-Kristian Tollefsen. This put the numbers at 3-1 in the favor of the Predators. That was the last of all the goals scored tonight.

Dan Ellis had a terrific night. He stopped 15/15 shots he faced tonight. Pekka Rinne went 12/13 on Save/Shot. Halfway through the game they replaced Ellis with Rinne to give Rinne some extra practice. The goal that got by Rinne could’ve been prevented if Jordin Tootoo had covered his man like he was supposed to. I’d say it was an all around solid performance from our goaltenders tonight.

Two youngsters that really stood out to me tonight were Patric Hornqvist and Antti Pihlstrom. Pihlstrom was digging deep in the boards racking up five hits and a goal. Hornqvist got a goal, an assist and four shots on goal. They both helped set up some big chances and have a lot of energy. These guys have a ton of potential.

Tonight our power play was pretty decent compared to the past few games and seasons. We converted two out of the 9 power plays into goals. 2/3^rds of our goals were scored on the power play. If we can continue to throw pucks at the net during the power play like we did tonight and stop passing it around and turning it over, we might win some more games this season.

Tonight our penalty kill remained solid. 0/13 Was the final count on G/PP. Pihlstrom proved to be very helpful on the penalty kill. He’s like Scotty Nichol with a lot more energy and speed.

Something that impressed me tonight was Jordin Tootoo drawing 4 penalties. He would flatten someone, then that person would get up and start screwing with him. He sat there and let the refs sort it out.

Tonight during the intermission, they had a nice segment on Paul Newman. R.I.P.

That’s all for tonight.

Jackson Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass