Ilya Mikheyev gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead at 4:29 of the first period with a wrist shot off the rush that deflected off Predators defenseman Roman Josi’s stick and past Saros.
“We were on top of pucks,” Vancouver coach Rich Tocchet said. “They were snapping pucks around. It was nice to watch behind the bench. You chip away. The Tampa [Bay] game (4-3 loss last Thursday), we were a little bit better, Florida (5-3 win Saturday), we were a little bit better, and I thought tonight, we kind of put it together.”
Colton Sissons scored for Nashville to tie it 1-1 at 15:38 of the first period when he kept the puck in the offensive zone on a clearing attempt from defenseman Carson Soucy and beat Demko with a wrist shot.
“I don’t really think our offensive game was the issue,” Sissons said. “It was just a little sloppy and disjointed for too much of… certainly for the first two periods. We couldn’t really get anything going. There were little flashes of some good hockey in the second but not enough.”
Di Giuseppe gave the Canucks a 2-1 lead 22 seconds into the second period, chipping a bouncing puck past Saros. Hoglander made it 3-1 at 3:11 on a redirection of a shot from the point by Hughes.
“It was a good sequence,” Di Giuseppe said. “We put them on their heels for a bit, but then I think they pushed. They pushed pretty hard and got some [offensive] zone time. Give credit to them, but I thought we did a good job of sticking to it and gutted it out.”