The Pacific Division champion Ducks dropped Game 2 by a score of 3-2 to the Predators, erasing any advantage Anaheim had in having home ice for the first pair of games. Now, the Predators will head home with a 2-0 series lead and a chance to take out one of the league's top Stanley Cup contenders.
Predators vs. Ducks, 2016 NHL playoff results: Nashville takes 2-0 series lead back home
In a worst case scenario for the Ducks, they’ve allowed home ice advantage to slip away.
In net, Pekka Rinne held the Ducks to just two goals on 29 shots.
Andrew Cogliano got the Ducks on the board first after causing an offensive zone turnover for the Predators. Cogliano found himself on a breakaway and got Rinne to open up the five hole with a silky backhand feed.
With 56 seconds to go in the first, Mattias Ekholm found the equalizer for Nashville. A backhander from in tight found its way behind John Gibson top shelf as the Predators tied the game 1-1.
The second period saw Nashville take a lead and widen it within the 20-minute frame. After spending much of the period in the offensive zone Craig Smith went top corner off a feed from Filip Forsberg behind the net. The Predators increased their lead after one of Shea Weber's slap shots finally hit twine on a power play with time winding down again in the period.
More penalties chewed up time and Anaheim's chances in the third as Nashville held a 6-4 shot advantage in the final frame. Nate Thompson found the net late for Anaheim with a goal that deflected through Rinne's pads that made it 3-2 with two and a half minutes remaining. Even so, the Ducks ran out of real estate to mount any type of comeback in the game's final moments.
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