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NASHVILLE -- The Nashville Predators have gotten off to a good start without Pekka Rinne. wholesale jerseys . Craig Smith scored at 4:43 of overtime to give the Predators a 3-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night. Shea Weber and Patric Hornqvist also scored for Nashville, which has won three of four. Anthony Peluso and Blake Wheeler scored for Winnipeg, which has lost three of four. Late in overtime, David Legwand picked up a loose puck in the Winnipeg zone and sent a pass to Smith at the left faceoff dot, where he hammered a one-timer past Jets goaltender Ondrej Pavelec, who had 30 saves. "I felt Leggy made a good play, he put it on a tee," Smith said. "The emphasis in this room is to shoot the puck and we did a good job of creating chances. I was the finishing touch right there." Tied at 1 entering the third period, Mike Fisher sent a shot on goal from the right boards. Hornqvist picked up the rebound in the high slot and fired a shot by Pavelec for his fourth goal of the season at 6:04 of the third. "Our second goal was a controlled breakout sort of setting," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "We got Fisher wide and he hammered it at the net. We got two whacks at it, and the second one went in the net and that is shooting to create." Hornqvist leads the Predators in goals this season. With 3:01 left in the third, Wheeler skated through the slot and converted the long rebound off a Zach Bogosian shot. "I think we did a lot of good things," Wheeler said. "We came out and had a really good start. In the first 10 minutes, we were all over them, kind of let them off the hook a little bit, and they took a little bit of the momentum away from us." Weber scored the games first goal at 15:53 of the opening period. With the Predators on the power play, Seth Jones broke up a short-handed scoring opportunity by Winnipegs Evander Kane. Nashville went the other way and Weber beat Pavelec with a wrist shot to the stick side from the high slot. The Jets got even at 13:49 of the second on Pelusos first career goal. From the right side, Peluso carried the puck behind the Nashville goal and his wraparound attempt just crossed the goal line before Carter Huttons stick knocked the puck back out of the crease. The play was initially ruled no goal on the ice, but a quick video review showed that the puck did cross the goal line completely. "The game for me was played in pockets of consistency and inconsistency," Winnipeg coach Claude Noel said. "We started out the first 10 minutes; I thought we were really solid then. From there we werent able to sustain some of the stuff we were doing. The biggest task for our team is to be consistent through the whole 60 minutes." Carter Hutton won his second game against the Jets in the past week. He led Nashville to a 3-1 victory Sunday night in Winnipeg, his first career win. He will be busy over the course of the next month, as Rinne, Nashvilles top goaltender, underwent arthroscopic surgery Thursday afternoon to clear up an infection in his left hip, the same hip he had surgery on following the conclusion of last season. "I am just taking it day-by-day, shot-by-shot, period-by-period, kind of slow things down," Hutton said. "You look at the big picture, it can be a bit overwhelming, especially Ive only played a couple of games." Thursdays procedure will keep Rinne out of the Nashville lineup for at least four weeks. Notes: Weber holds the Nashville record for power-play goals scored with 51. ... Nashville is 5-0-1 when scoring first this season. ... The Jets began a four-game road trip, all against fellow Central Division opponents. ... Winnipeg has not scored a power-play goal in its past six games. jerseys from china . Showing more spark after not taking enough challenging shots on goal in their 1-0 loss Friday night, the Bruins had 18 shots in the first period after managing just 25 in the entire opener. Luke Glendening cut Bostons lead to 2-1 at 13:20 of the second period before Milan Lucic scored late in the second and Zdeno Chara added a power-play goal early in the third. cheap jerseys from china . Agent Mike McCartney confirmed via Twitter on Sunday that Mendenhall had decided to end his playing career after six NFL seasons, all but one of them with the Pittsburgh Steelers.TORONTO -- Defence has been a Toronto Rock trademark but it was the offence that carried them to a 16-11 victory over the Calgary Roughnecks in the National Lacrosse League season opener for both teams Friday night. "It was the way we wanted to start the season," said forward Stephan Leblanc, who led the way with five goals. "We were fired up and the goals were dropping for us." Toronto finished first overall last season so general manager Terry Sanderson saw no need for drastic change. The offence clicked for five goals on its first nine shots and the defence and goalie Nick Rose limited 2013 scoring champion Shawn Evans to one goal. Rob Hellyer, at 21 the youngest player in a veteran-laden attack, looked good on the right side as he assumed the bulk of the playing time that had previously been committed to the now-retired Blaine Manning. Hellyer popped three goals in his enhanced role. "With only six offensive guys out of 16 runners youre going to be out there all the time," said Hellyer, alluding to the leagues reduction to 16 from 18 runners. "Ive had a good three years with this team and Ive learned a lot. I think now itd be nice to step up and make a bigger contribution." Colin Doyle and Josh Sanderson have been amazing for a long time. They each scored twice. "We stuck to a game plan and it certainly worked," said Doyle. "I dont think we saw their best. Thats for certain. But, as far as starts go, that was a pretty good start for this team." Jesse Gamble, Kasey Beirnes, Garrett Billings and Ethan OConnor added one each for the Rock, who held quarter leads of 7-3, 9-4 and 12-6. "It was special," said new head coach John Lovell. "Our guys worked really hard for this." Billings had nine assists in front of an Air Canada Centre crowd of 11,120. "Its a credit to the chemistry we have up front," Billings said of his 10-point night. "It was a great game for Blaine Manning, who as offensive coach was behind the bench for the first time. "Its great to put up numbers like that. Ive been with this core group for four years now so Ive got good chemistry playing with Steph going back to our junior days and ever since Josh Sanderson put on a Rock jersey for the second time weve had great chemistry, too. It helps knowing where all the guys are going to be on the floor. "t;Its fun. nfl jerseys china. Id have liked to have scored a couple more goals. But what can you do?" Jeff Shattler scored four goals, Dane Dobbie had two and Evans, Daryl Veltman, Geoff Snider, Curtis Dickson and Matthew Dinsdale one each for the Roughnecks, who were outshot 61-51. Toronto led by six entering the fourth quarter but Calgary scored four of the next five goals to close within 13-10. Biernes broke the run with his goal at 11:41 and rookie OConnor scored his first pro goal into an empty net to seal the victory. Gamble supplied repeated transition thrusts all night. "It was a great way to start the season, to know that were competitive and that we have the right guys," he said. "We can compete in this league. That wasnt a bad (Calgary) team. Theyve got a lot of skill and they are going to compete for the Champions Cup so this win gives us a lot of confidence." The Rocks seven-goal first quarter proved to be the difference in the end. "We got a big lead but they didnt go away," said Rose. "We knew that about them. Theyre going to be tough to beat all year. But we earned the win tonight. Any time your O puts up seven for you in one quarter, its a nice feeling. That takes the stress off making the next save. The O was awesome." Calgary coach Curt Malawsky gave Shattler and Poulin an A for effort. But his teams goals-against numbers were poor last year and they were again Friday night. The first quarter put his players in too deep a hole. "Yeah, no question," he said of a deficit his club couldnt overcome. "Youre down 7-3 to a team like that in their building. Its tough to battle back. They went on three three-goal runs and a five-goal run and we only answered back with a four-goal run. We didnt do a very good job of controlling momentum." NOTES: On power plays, Toronto was 4 for 8 and Calgary 3 for 3 . . . Veteran Rock defencemen Pat Merrill and Chris White sat out with what the team described as lower-body injuries . . . Unavailable to Calgary due to injuries were T Scott Ranger, T Travis Cornwall and D Pete McFetridge . . . Making their NLL debuts were D Craig England and T Ethan OConnor of the Rock and T Tor Reinholdt, T Karsen Leung and D Garrett McIntosh of the Roughnecks . . . Both teams play their second games of 2014 next Friday, with Toronto at Buffalo and Colorado at Calgary. cheap jerseys ' ' ' |
