The Ducks took the Predators to overtime Friday night, but the visitors managed to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven games in the Western Conference Final. Nashville now holds a 1-0 lead in the series after the huge road victory at Honda Center.
The first period came to a close with Nashville and Anaheim knotted up at one, but it was clear from the early stages who was showing up. The winger has been fantastic since the start of the first round, and he's now tied with Ryan Getzlaf for the team lead in playoff goals.
The Predators look to continue their remarkable run in the National Hockey League playoffs as they head into Anaheim for game two of the Western Conference final and with a victory here the Preds would jump out to an improbable 2-0 series lead heading back to Nashville for games three and four. "But it was a good feeling to see it go in". He only played 7:55, but the Predators had a 9-2 shot advantage with him on the ice.
The Ducks got to overtime thanks to Hampus Lindholm's third-period blast from the point, beating Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne to even things up at two apiece after Auston Watson and Filip Forsberg put the Predators out in front.
Lindholm tied the score at 2-2 with his first goal of the playoffs, a wrist shot that tucked inside the left post after Thompson's faceoff win at 7:21 of the third period. The Predators had been putting on the pressure in the extra period with a 6-2 shot advantage before Neal's seventh attempt did the trick. The vaunted two-way forward was a one-man machine in the offensive end: he opened the scoring with an unassisted tally, a puck to the top corner that Rinne never saw on Anaheim's first shot of the game. That's really good position to be in but there is one risk, that when you give up possession, you can make yourself vulnerable.
"We scored on our first shot of the game and then we got outshot 13-1", Carlyle said.
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If Le Pen had won the election and France had exited the EU, that "could've led to the collapse of the union", the official said. Catherine Barbaroux has been named as interim leader of the movement, which changed its name to "République En Marche".
On a night the Ducks struggled to get much going, Silfverberg was a bright spot.
The Ducks could potentially lose Silfverberg to the Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft this summer. "They're an aggressive team that can skate". But even with back-to-back power plays in the second, Anaheim had trouble getting much past Rinne. If that happens, Silverberg could be the odd man out with Perry, Getzlaf, Ryan Kesler, and Rickard Rakell looking like locks for protection. Lindholm finished the game with a plus-1 rating, two penalty minutes, three shots on goal and four blocked shots in 20:31 of ice time.
The Anaheim Ducks say they're ready to put a loss in the opener of the Western Conference final in the rearview mirror. He hasn't been consistent during the regular season, with save percentages ranging from.902 to.923 over the past four years, but the 34-year-old is showing his best is still good enough to dominate. Nashville made quick work of the heavily favoured Chicago Blackhawks in the opening round and then wasted the St. Louis Blues in the second round then played a textbook series opening road game against the Ducks who had to have been exhausted after a seven game series with the young and speedy Oilers.
"Our power play has been a little bit touch and go". Game 3 of this series is scheduled for Tuesday night in Nashville. Ryan Johansen, Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson did combine for three points and eight shots, but Johansen racked up an assist on an extended shift with another line and Forsberg's goal came against Antoine Vermette's line. On the flip side, the Ducks had Chris Wagner at minus-8, Jared Boll at minus-6, and Shea Theodore at minus-9 in 5-on-5 Corsi during the game (via Natural Stat Trick).
"Whoever's picking us as the underdog, that's fine", Neal said.
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