The Preds lines at the start of the game (in order of first shift)
    Spaling centering Wilson and Yip
    Legwand centering Bourque and Hornqvist
    Fisher centering Erat and S. Kostitsyn
    Gaustad centering Halischuk and Tootoo

Defense pairings:
    Bouillon and Klein
    Josi and Gill
    Suter and Weber


THREE MUSINGS:
Good Energy -- The Preds opened the game with more energy than either of the first two games of the series. Spaling, Wilson and Yip set the tone from the first shift, throwing their bodies around on the forecheck. The crowd was into the game as the two teams played with pace and physicality.

Wall Battles -- Both Nashville goals in the first period came off of board battles won by the Preds. The first after Hornqvist won a battle high in the defensive zone to chip the puck past the Phoenix defender and then continued hard after the loose puck to force Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith to play the play the puck into a turnover for Legwand's goal. The second came after Erat won the puck back on the halfboards in the offensive zone and fed a two-on-one down low between Fisher and Kostitsyn. Those are two examples of the type of "detail plays" the coaching staff stressed the last two days as "returning to Predators hockey."

The Glove Hand -- Rinne was gloving all the shots early in the game preveting the rebound attempts that got the Preds in trouble in Games 1 and 2. When Rinne is at his best, he's gloving everything; we saw it during the Detroit series and saw it again during the first period tonight. Rinne faced 10 shots in the first period, but the Coyotes never had a flurry of multiple shots in short succession.