The Nashville Predators rose to victory.
Nashville’s Filip Forsberg had reason to celebrate. EPA / AOP
The Stockholm Global Series matches between the Nashville Predators and the Pittsburgh Penguins got off to a colorful start on Friday night.
The match was sticky until the last minutes of the final set, but Filip Forsberg’s goal in the final moments released the crowd into the air in a wild storm of screams.
Forsberg’s goal stretched the match to extra time, so the audience got entertainment for all the money.
There was less than a minute to play overtime, when the Predators, who got the momentum from the equalizer in the final moments, struck.
The much-maligned star Steven Stamkos made a half-way through and shot the puck with power into the back upper corner of the Penguins’ goal.
Before the twists and turns of the final moments, the match seemed to be heading inexorably towards a flat end.
Both teams created a few good scoring opportunities in the opening set, but the set remained goalless. Perhaps the best place in the first 20 minutes went to Predators’ Erik Haula, who pedaled underpowered to drive through. However, Haula’s attempt between the legs of goalkeeper Artus Silovs was not successful.
The first – and at the same time the winning goal – hit in a match with few goals was quite a pinball. In the second period, Yevgeni Malkin delivered the puck from behind the goal to the goal, and the puck bounced off the stick of a Nashville player through the helmet of Juuse Saros and into the goal.
In the third period, the Predators didn’t seem to get a couple of longer attacks, except for a decent start. This changed when Sweden’s own son Forsberg took the keys to the Avicii Arena, stepped up to the Penguins’ goal after Andrew Brunette’s timeout and lifted the puck handsomely from his knuckles into the roof of the goal.
The best players of the match were the goalkeepers of both teams. In addition to molars and scorers, Sidney Crosby, among others, stood out in the form of a few strong and smart individual performances.
The teams will play the second match on Sunday at 16:00 Finnish time.