VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Pius Suter and Dakota Joshua scored 12 seconds apart in the third period and the Vancouver Canucks rallied for a 4-2 win over the Nashville Predators in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series on Sunday night.
Joshua had two goals and an assist, Elias Lindholm also scored and Thatcher Demko saved 20 shots for Vancouver, the Pacific Division champion who hosted a playoff game for the first time since 2015.
“We’ve been talking about playing one-goal games all season for these moments, and I love that there was no panic today, almost none,” Canucks forward JT Miller said. “We just stuck with it.”
Jason Zucker and Ryan O’Reilly scored for Nashville, and Juuse Saros made 17 saves.
The Canucks were down 2-1 when Suter tied the score at 8:59 of the third. Quin Hughes received a pass from Brock Boeser and fired a shot that deflected off Suter and past Saros just inside the blue line.
Just 12 seconds later, Lindholm checked Jeremy Lauzon behind the Predators’ net and shook him off the puck. Conor Garland picked it up and shot it to Joshua, who sent it in from the top of the box to put Vancouver up 3-2.
“I’ll never forget it,” Joshua said of his goal. “And it makes you want to keep doing it.”
Demko preserved the one-goal lead with a series of late stops, including one on Roman Josi with 1:49 left.
The Predators pulled Saros and Joshua took advantage, scoring his second goal of the night into an empty net with 1:28 remaining to seal the victory.
“I think we stayed patient throughout the game and didn’t put too much pressure on or give up anything when we were down in the third game,” said Hughes, who had two assists. “We got our look and we knew we could get our look.”
Nashville went 1-for-4 on the power play, while Vancouver went 0-for-3.
“Every power play you don’t score on is a missed opportunity,” Zucker said. “I thought it was cool to get this one. (O’Reilly) and those guys made some great plays there and I thought our (penalty shot) was really good tonight.
Nashville opened the scoring at 15:15 when Zucker took a pass from Josi and sent a shot through traffic from the top of the faceoff circle and beat Demko.
Lindholm equalized 47 seconds into the second, sending a long wrist shot past Saros.
The Canucks ran into penalty trouble midway through the second, receiving three calls in just over six minutes. Nashville took advantage of its first man advantage after Teddy Blueger was sent to the box for interference.
Gustav Nyquist passed a pass to O’Reilly, who shot it into the top corner of the Vancouver net. It was O’Reilly’s 26th career playoff goal.
“I thought we were starting to dominate the game and we fell asleep on an offensive zone shift, we missed assignments, we didn’t block the shot and it’s 2-2,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “And I thought we had a lot of momentum going there, so that’s hockey.
“We have to learn from this and move on – Etch A Sketch, short-term memory – and move on.”
NOTES: The Canucks had 39 hits while the Predators had 32. Predators forward Cole Smith had a game-high six hits. … Josi has 32 career postseason assists, setting a Predators record. He also holds the franchise mark for playoff points by a defenseman with 43.
NEXT
Game 2 will be Tuesday night in Vancouver.
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AP NHL Playoffs: and
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