Predators rally past Canucks in 3rd, stay alive with Game 5 win

VANCOUVER -- Alexandre Carrier scored the go-ahead goal at 12:46 of the third period, and the Nashville Predators rallied to avoid elimination with a 2-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks in Game 5 of the Western Conference First Round at Rogers Arena on Tuesday.

Carrier took a pass from Gustav Nyquistand scored low blocker side on Canucks goalie Arturs Silovs, who was trying to see past a screen by forward Ryan O'Reilly.

“Great pass by Gus going low to high and then I just saw traffic and took the middle and just shot it,” Carrier said. “(Roman) Josi said it was the hardest shot he's seen of his life, so just happy it went in.”

Vancouver leads the best-of-7 series 3-2. Game 6 will be in Nashville on Friday.

“It's great for us to go back to Nashville,” Josi said. “We kind of knew before the game they don't want to come back to Nashville. They wanted to close out tonight, but you know what, there's so many momentum changes even within the game. It's up and down, momentum changes and you've got to be a desperate team. We’ve got to be desperate next game. We're still facing elimination.”

Carrier's goal came after Josi tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 7:15 of the third after being sent in alone by Filip Forsberg. His initial deke was stopped, but the puck trickled under Silovs, who knocked it in as Nyquist and a few Canucks players crashed the net.

Nashville was 0-for-3 with one shot on the power play and hadn’t scored on the man-advantage since converting its first chance of the series before Josi’s tying goal.

“It was huge we could get that goal and kind of take the momentum right back,” Forsberg said.

Forsberg had two assists, and Juuse Saros made 19 saves for the Predators, who are the first wild card from the West.

“The third period, I thought it could go either way,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “[Saros] made some unbelievable saves, and we got a bounce and that's been kind of the series so far.”

Nikita Zadorov scored, and Silovs made 20 saves in his second NHL playoff start for the Canucks, who are the No. 1 seed from the Pacific Division.

Vancouver is averaging 18.4 shots on goal per game in the series.

“I don’t think we had a problem today offensively, honestly,” Zadorov said. “We created enough. We had a lot of zone time, we were low to high, we had a lot of shots, backdoor tips, we had some chances go on net. But it’s playoff hockey, 2-1, 1-0 games, they win you series. It’s hard to close in this league.”

Vancouver scored twice with Silovs pulled for an extra attacker to tie Game 4 in Nashville before winning 4-3 in overtime, but it couldn’t find another late goal Tuesday.

“Nashville’s a good team,” Zadorov said. “They push back, they stick with it. I feel like we stole last game in their building, they stole this game here. So, it’s on us to go out there and play our best hockey and try to shut them down next game.”

Zadorov gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead at 3:11 of the third on a solo rush out of his own end. He skated down the left wing before sending a wrist shot from the left circle over the short-side shoulder of Saros just under the crossbar.

“Obviously, that was not a good goal (to allow),” Saros said. “I was already kind of thinking too much about the pass options there, so obviously got to respect the shooter more there. I feel like it didn't really affect us. I felt like more we kind of went more after them and it was great to see us get the two goals there.”

Vancouver finished 0-for-2 on the power play and failed to generate a shot on either opportunity midway through the second period.

“Our power play was awful,” Canucks forward J.T. Miller said. “We have to look in the mirror as a group. We could have been a factor in the game, and we weren’t. A lot of emotion in the game. They were resilient. It’s hard to close things out.”

NOTES: Nashville defenseman Luke Schenn was a late scratch (illness). He was replaced by Tyson Barrie, who played 17:42 and assisted on Josi’s goal in his first game of the playoffs. … Carrier scored his first career playoff goal and became the fifth defenseman in the past 20 years to have his first playoff goal stand as the game-winner in a potential elimination game, joining Scott Mayfield (Game 7 of 2020 Eastern Conference Second Round), Dan Girardi (Game 7 of 2012 Conference Quarterfinals), Matt Carkner (Game 5 of 2010 Conference Quarterfinals) and Mike Komisarek (Game 7 of 2008 Conference Quarterfinals).