NASHVILLE -- Eric Nystrom almost felt sorry for Wild goalie Josh Harding coming off the bench to defend a penalty shot. Almost. Nystrom scored his first career penalty shot at 11:14 of the first period for the game-winner Tuesday night and the Nashville Predators earned their first win of the season with a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild in their home opener. "You couldnt have scripted it any better to score a goal like that, kind of dramatic fashion and ended up being the game winner against your former team," Nystrom said. "It was pretty exciting. It was fun to play here and get our first win of the season." Nystrom spent the 2010-11 season with Minnesota and said he had some "unfortunate circumstances" with the team. He went to Dallas and signed with Nashville this off-season. He got the penalty shot when tripped on a breakaway, sending him crashing into Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom. The goalie left the game with a lower body injury, and the Wild said Backstrom will be evaluated Wednesday. Wild coach Mike Yeo said he hadnt talked to the trainer yet when he spoke with reporters after the game. That left Nystrom with a couple of minutes waiting to shoot, but the Predators forward had plenty of experience shooting against replacement Josh Harding during his lone year with the Wild. "He goes in and his first shot against is a penalty shot ice-cold, thats a tough situation for any goalie," Nystrom said. "But it felt pretty good." Filip Forsberg and Colin Wilson also scored power-play goals 39 seconds apart in the first period as the Predators matched the goals they had totalled in losing the first two games. Goalie Pekka Rinne made 32 saves as Nashville started a five-game homestand with the win. "Its always nice to win the first one and try to build some confidence, some good things and keep moving forward when were at home because were going to be on the road quite a while," Nashville captain Shea Weber said. Zach Parise scored a power-play goal, and Jared Spurgeon also scored for the Wild who remain winless through three games. "Weve got to find a way to win," Wild defenceman Keith Ballard said. Now that these teams are in the Central Division after realignment, these games mean much more than just the chance to boo former Nashville defenceman Ryan Suter who went to Minnesota as a free agent in July 2012 for a 13-year, $98 million deal. A sellout crowd booed Suter every time he was on the ice yet again. Nashville coach Barry Trotz said Suter told him he thought his old coach liked him. Trotz responded that he has no control over the fans in Section 303. "Hes playing for the enemy now," Trotz said. The Wild went up 1-0 on a tip-in by Parise off a shot by Mikko Koivu off a cross-ice pass from Suter, taking advantage of a high-sticking penalty on rookie defenceman Seth Jones at 4:15 of the first. But Kyle Brodziak went to the penalty box for interference against David Legwand at 4:15 followed by Koivu for tripping Jones 21 seconds later. The Predators made the Wild pay for the 5-on-3 with Forsberg scoring his first career NHL goal at 5:07 on a snap shot from the left circle off assists from Patric Hornqvist and Jones, with the rookie getting his first point. "Hes got those magic hands," Trotz said of Forsberg. "Hes slippery in tight spaces and as he keeps growing as a player I think youre going to see some of those qualities come out." Then Wilson went high over Backstroms stick for his first goal of the season from the right circle at 5:46 for a 2-1 lead. Ballard tripped Nystrom on a breakaway, and the Predators forward crashed into Backstrom, pushing the goalies right leg into the post. A trainer walked out to Backstrom, who skated slowly to the bench before going to the locker room. Backstrom tied for the NHL lead with 24 wins last season and is Minnesotas franchise leader in wins, shutouts, shutout streak, games played, starts and minutes played. "I give Harding credit," Yeo said. "Thats a really difficult situation to come into and giving up the goal that way, and then he battled hard all game in net. "So I give him an awful lot of credit and I give our guys credit too because it would have been easy to feel sorry for ourselves." The Wild pulled within 3-2 when Spurgeon scored his first this season on a power play with a wrister past Rinne at 7:26, and his goal came with 1 second left on the man advantage after Forsberg went to the box for hooking. But the Wild couldnt beat Rinne again. Notes: The Predators are 2 for 11 with the man advantage this season. ... Nashville last scored three goals in a period April 2, 2013, against Colorado in the third period. ... Nashville went 7-1-3 last season when leading after the first period. ... Nystroms penalty shot was the ninth in Predators history and his first goal for Nashville. ... Koivus assist gave him 400 career NHL points. ... Seven of the past eight games between these teams have been one-goal games. ... Harding is 1 for 2 against penalty shots in his career. Cheap Jordans China . At quarterback, all agree that Andy Dalton has been a wonderful surprise, but to truly progress he has to play his best in the playoffs. The two losses in the wildcard rounds keep the evaluation on Dalton open -- just like it did for Peyton Manning many years ago and Matt Ryan until last year. Wholesale Jordans Paypal . Golden States second straight road win wasnt painless. 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Over-invested parents; the pressure to win at too young an age; high-pressure coaches who focus on winning instead of on development; and increased dropout rates because of these and other factors are just some of story lines that we see repeated over and over. Much of this negativity comes because of our collective mindset that the only way for us to measure our childrens progress in soccer is through the scores of their games. How many points their team gets and how many goals our children score have, for too many years, been the metrics by which we gauge their progress. But what if there was a different way to develop soccer players in Canada? What if we could simply teach kids to play better? That is the goal of Willie Cromack, founder of Play Better, an innovative plan to improve sport culture in Canada. The program attempts to shift the mindset of players and parents alike, away from scoreboard success and towards empowering children to discover their potential - both as soccer players and as human beings. Play Better is a grassroots soccer program designed to provide clubs, coaches, parents and players with a clear and accountable pathway through soccer. This includes an LTPD-compliant curriculum, lesson plans complete with desired outcomes, video training sessions, as well as tools for gathering metrics beyond simply the number of goals scored. The reason behind the gathering of those metrics is where the genius lies. Play Better aims to marry a holistic charitable program with the training and development of young soccer players. The program does through by asking teams to do the following: • Choose a cause or charity. For example; the SPCA, the Canadian Cancer Society or your local childrens hospital. • Choose a baseline metric. For example; a recreational team can choose 100 completed passes per game. A more competitive team can choose a larger number, such as 200 completed passes. This is called the team goal or team win. • Have a pre-season meeting wiith parents to explain your objective; for every game in which your team achieves its team win, ask parents (or friends, family members or sponsors) to donate a pre-determined dollar amount to the team cause/charity.dddddddddddd The monetary amount is not important - it can be as little as a loonie per parent/family. • Create a team website, where the kids can tell their story. It gives them a chance to explain, in their own words, how achieving their objective every game will not only help them become better soccer players, but also make a difference in the world. It also allows them to track and promote how much money they have raised for their chosen cause/charity. Team Falcons is a U11 boys gold soccer team in North Vancouver. Click here to see how they have committed to Play Better. I am often asked how we can shift away from the win-at-all-costs mentality that has infected youth soccer in our country. As I have written many times before, it is one of the biggest hurdles we must overcome if we are to create an effective youth development system in Canada. It isnt the players that we need to convince; it is the parents. A program like Play Better might just be the bridge we need to achieve this. As the members of Team Falcons can attest, players participating in Play Better quickly realize that their sporting endeavours have a bigger meaning. It isnt just about winning and losing anymore - it is about helping others. This teaches players to work on their fundamental skills (to complete 100 or 200 passes per games, players have to focus on what they learn in training), but more importantly, it teaches them about helping others, about community investment and about personal growth. What parent doesnt want their child to learn those lessons? If these lessons can be tied into the technical development of young soccer players, then Canadian soccer could be onto something big. *If you or your team is interested in Play Better, you can read more about the program here, or contact Willie Cromack at willie@championsinsport.com ' ' '