Official Site of Darcy Hordichuk

Predators forward Darcy Hordichuk suffered a sprained MCL in Friday’s win over Columbus and will miss at least the next two games.

Hordichuk was hurt when he took a big hit from Blue Jackets forward Jason Chimera, one that sent Hordichuk over the sideboards and into the Columbus bench.

Hordichuk flew back to Nashville from Detroit on Saturday.

Hordichuk played in his 300th NHL game against the Capitals on Tuesday. Unfortunately the Predators loss 4-2.

Rich Peverley’s second-period goal broke a tie and lifted the Nashville Predators to a 3-1 win over the Red Wings on Saturday to snap Detroit’s five-game winning streak. Read the rest of this entry »

Johan Franzen scored two power-play goals and the Detroit Red Wings held on for a 4-3 victory over the Nashville Predators on Sunday. Read the rest of this entry »

Nashville scrapper Darcy Hordichuk had to wait until the third period to accept Edmonton Oilers’ Zack Stortini’s invitation to fight earlier this week.

“I told him we’d go in the third because we were winning 3-0,” Hordichuk told the Tennessean.

Hordichuk said he was wary of changing the game’s momentum.

“But he kept chasing me down, trying to embarrass me in front of the crowd. I got no problem with a guy wanting to (fight), but there’s no need to keep slashing me. Finally I got the OK from the coaching staff (to fight).”

Hordichuk taunted Stortini from the penalty box after the scrap between the two. Hordichuk stumbled to his knees a couple of times, mimicking Stortini taking a hard punch from Hordichuk.

The Nashville Predators signed goaltender Jeremy Smith to an entry-level contract Wednesday.

Smith, just 18 years old, was selected by Nashville in the second round of the 2007 entry draft. In 40 games this season with Plymouth of the Ontario Hockey League, Smith has posted a 2.86 goals-against average and .921 save percentage with three shutouts.

Smith was also Team USA’s starting netminder for the 2008 World Junior Championships, going 4-2-0 with a 2.40 GAA.

Martin Erat notched the first hat trick of his career as the Nashville Predators continued their domination of the Edmonton Oilers with a 5-1 win at Rexall Place.

J.P. Dumont and Ville Koistinen also scored for the Predators, who have won two straight.

Dan Ellis stopped 29 shots in the win for Nashville, which now has 76 points and jumped into eighth place in the Western Conference.

“It’s 15 games and it’s going to be a nice run,” Erat said. “It’s just packed around eighth place and we have to get the points from every game when we can.”

Nashville has swept the series with Edmonton for the second straight year and has won nine of 12 overall.

Tom Gilbert scored the lone goal for the Oilers, who had a four-game winning streak stopped. Mathieu Garon started in net, but was pulled after allowing three goals on 12 shots. Dwayne Roloson played the final two periods and gave up two goals on 12 shots.

“Some nights you’re going to play good and not win, and some nights you’re going to play bad and end up with a win, but tonight we didn’t deserve it at all,” Garon said.

Nashville scored just 55 seconds into the game as Dumont blasted a hard shot from the left circle that handcuffed Garon.

Less than three minutes later, Erat notched his first goal of the game as he threw a shot on net that banked off of defender Steve Staios and got past Garon.

Nashville took a 3-0 lead at the 13:09 mark of the first as Erat picked the top right corner with a blast from the right point.

Erat completed the natural hat trick just 54 seconds into the second period as he banged in a rebound off a shot from Shea Weber.

Edmonton finally got a goal at the 5:45 mark of the second as Gilbert sneaked in from the right point to slap a shot past Ellis to make it a 4-1 game.

However, Nashville regained its four-goal advantage less than four minutes later as Vern Fiddler gained the zone and dropped a pass to a trailing Koistinen, whose hard shot beat Roloson.

Ellis made eight saves in the third period to keep Edmonton from rallying.