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Suter powers Predators past Thrashers

Nov 29, 2008 - 4:31 AM By Phil Foley PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ATLANTA (Ticker) -- Ryan Suter had the Nashville Predators partying like it was 1999 on a bizarre night at Philips Arena.

Suter scored 1:43 into overtime and Scot Nichol found the net with an improbable second-period goal, leading the Predators to a 4-3 win over the Atlanta Thrashers on Friday.

Fellow blue-liner Dan Hamhuis notched a goal and an assist and captain Jason Arnott also tallied for the Predators, who won here for the first time since 1999 - the Thrashers' first season in the NHL.

"That was pretty cool," Suter said of his goal. "Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals would have been better, but that will do for now."

Defenseman Nathan Oystrick had a goal and an assist, Ilya Kovalchuk and Todd White also scored and Jason Williams had two assists for Atlanta, which is 1-4-1 in its last six contests.

"(It was a) sloppy game tonight," White said. "We did not play a full 60 minutes."

With the game tied after 60 minutes, Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne dished the puck to defenseman Shea Weber, who blistered a pass toward his linemate Suter at the Atlanta blueline.

All by his lonesome, Suter caught the pass with his glove, deposited it onto his stick, waltzed over the blue line and uncorked a slap shot from the left faceoff circle. Atlanta netminder Johan Hedberg slowed down the puck, but could not stop it from going between his legs and into the net to give the Predators the victory.

"I was aiming five-hole," Suter said. "Luckily, it snuck in there."

"That was a great (play)," Nashville coach Barry Trotz. "It was a smart play for Ryan. He saw they went for a change and he jumped up and he got all alone."

Rinne set aside 22 shots en route to improving to 3-0-0 on the season.

"Big win," Rinne said. "Big goal by Suter. I'm happy with my wins. That's the most important stat for me. The more wins I get, the more games I get."

Hamhuis opened the scoring with a shorthanded tally, taking Vernon Fiddler's backhanded pass and blasting the puck into the top right corner of the net from between the circles 8:39 into the contest before Atlanta answered back on a bizarre goal.

Hamhuis' centering pass from behind the Nashville goal bounced off the shaft of the stick of White and took a lucky bounce between the pads of Rinne to tie the game at 1-1 with 3:21 remaining in the first period.

"(White) had his stick half-way through, and it hit his shaft," Trotz said. "Pekka was caught off-guard."

But things just kept on getting stranger at Philips Arena.

Nichol and the Predators jumped ahead again with a mind-boggling tally 42 seconds into the second session. The Nashville center ripped a slap shot from between the circles that went over the right shoulder of goaltender Johan Hedberg, into the net and through the netting for his third goal of the season.

The shot was initially waived off by the officials at the arena, but the call was overruled seconds later upon video review, which showed streaks of black rubber marks on either side of the nylon and twine opening where the puck somehow slid through.

The net, which is designed to an approximate tensile strength of 700 pounds, could not hold the puck - but remained perfectly intact.

"(I haven't seen that) for a while for a while, not without it getting through without a hole in (the net)," Trotz said. "Scott Nichol was saying that's what you can do when you work out in the summer."

"It was a little weirder than I've seen it before," Atlanta coach John Anderson said. "It was a good shot. What are you going to do?"

Atlanta tied the contest on Oystrick's second goal of the season midway through the second before Arnott put the Predators back ahead, burying the puck into the unoccupied left side of the net from the doorstep at 6:21 of the third period.

That tally upset Anderson, who thought that the referees should have called a hooking penalty on Nashville.

"I was concerned about their third goal," Anderson said. "Clearly, a hook on (defenseman Ron) Hainsey. They got control of the puck, it goes right to the guy in front of the net and it goes in. That concerns me a lot when that's not called. That can't be missed."

Kovalchuk leveled the contest, taking a backhanded pass from Oystrick and burying it past Rinne for his eighth goal of the season at 10:26 of the third.

Hedberg set aside 22 shots for the Thrashers, who fell to 8-11-3 on the season.