Ryan Johansen scored his first goal of the second round to give the Nashville Predators a 2-1 lead against the St. Louis Blues in Game 6.
Going into Game 6, both the Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues knew it was a must win scenario. After the teams went into the final 20 minutes tied at one, Ryan Johansen put the Predators ahead 2-1.
The Blues had held him in check, as it’s his first goal in eight playoff games. Johansen’s last goal came against the Chicago Blackhawks. However, the Blues couldn’t keep him quiet forever. All series long, the Predators haven’t gotten much from their dynamic first line. Now its center gives them a critical lead. Should the lead stand, Nashville will go to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history.
They sure didn’t make it easy for themselves. Despite getting four power plays in the first two periods, Nashville came out of them with zero goals. However, a goal by Roman Josi in the second period tied the game after the Blues scored early in the first period. Pekka Rinne has been amazing, keeping the Predators in the game with some huge saves. On the other side of the ice, Jake Allen deserves a lot of credit as well.
Arvidsson to Johansen and the Predators have a third period lead pic.twitter.com/s8rDLcrpe3
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) May 7, 2017
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Johansen has been huge for the Predators this season. Even when he wasn’t producing goals in this series, the Blues had to pay him and his line a lot of attention. This undeniably helped ease the pressure on the other lines. Viktor Arvidsson has been a hero all season long for Nashville. It figures he’d play a huge role in quite possibly the biggest goal of the season for them.