The Nashville Predators rookies erased a two-goal deficit with less than a minute remaining to force overtime, but ultimately fell to the Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 in their second outing of the Prospect Showcase.
“It took lots of grit for the guys to be able to stay in there and get two goals with the goalie out,” Milwaukee Admirals Head Coach Karl Taylor said. “That doesn’t happen very often, so we were proud of that moment.”
“I think it was a great game,” Preds forward prospect Egor Afanasyev said. “We lost unfortunately, but we were down two and came back late in the third. I think it was a great effort by our goalie and our team.”
Carolina opened scoring late in the first, picking up a loose puck down low and putting it behind Predators goaltender Tomas Vomacka.
Nashville evened things up early in the second, as forward Mark Duarte grabbed his own rebound and wristed it into the back of the net.
Carolina took the lead again just a few minutes later, picking off an outlet pass from Vomacka and depositing the puck into an unguarded net for a shorthanded goal.
Six minutes later, the home team stretched their lead to two, but the Predators responded quickly again as Afanasyev buried a loose puck for his second goal of the tournament.
Video: undefined
The Hurricanes restored their two-goal advantage late in the third period on an empty net, but the Predators weren’t ready to pack it up just yet.
With the net emptied again and 57 seconds on the clock, Afanasyev found twine for his second of the morning and third of the weekend. Then, with just seven seconds remaining and Nashville’s net vacant once more, forward Juuso Parssinen found an opening and wristed home the equalizer.
While the Hurricanes ultimately found the game-winner, Taylor liked a lot of what he saw from Nashville’s young prospects, starting with the group’s more seasoned skaters.
“When you have older players playing, they’ve obviously been through this before and they’ve been through more situations and can help you in those,” Taylor said. “They understand to stay with the process and not focus on what’s happening, and they know that eventually it’s going to turn out for you. We almost ran out of time today, but we were able to find a way to get into overtime.”
Video: undefined
“Pro hockey is obviously different from junior hockey, and we have a lot of pro hockey players, so I feel like we can all play on the same page, which obviously helps,” Afanasyev said. “We battled through and guys blocked shots and guys backchecked, and I loved the effort from everyone.”
The Predators will get to work one last time when they face the Florida Panthers’ rookie squad Monday at 9 am CT, and with some minor adjustments, could end their trip on a high note.
“We just want to see our game speed up a little more,” Taylor said. “We want to play with a little more pace, like we did in the first period. I really liked the pace and the speed we had through the neutral zone, but I thought we lost that during the game. So, we’d just like to see that for all three periods.”
Follow the action tomorrow morning via livestream on NashvillePredators.com and follow the Preds on social media for live updates and additional behind-the-scenes content.
Click here for the full Prospect Showcase roster and see below for the remaining tournament schedule:
Monday, Sept. 19 @ 9 a.m. CT – Predators vs. Panthers, PNC Arena (Raleigh, NC)
.