Vancouver vs. Nashville – Despite Vancouver now owning a 3-1 series lead, their battle with the Predators has been an exceptional one to watch. Last night’s game four was no different. Christian Ehrhoff opened the scoring for the Canucks late in the first period. His shot from the point would be his second of the post-season. Before closing out the period, Nashville managed to tie things up on the power-play. After a great shot from the point by Cody Franson, Joel Ward was right on the goal crease waiting for the rebound. He placed a nice second attempt shot over Roberto Luongo’s pad for his fifth post-season goal.
The second period saw little action until 9:43 when Alexander Edler ripped a bomb from the point past Pekka Rinne. The Edler goal gave Vancouver a 2-1 lead, which they held into the third period. Early in the third, however, Cody Franson collected the puck at the point and fired a shot home past Luongo to tie the game 2-2. Just four minutes later, at 7:28 of the third, Ryan Kesler split the Predators defense and scored a highlight-reel goal to put the Canucks back on top. The Kesler goal would turn out to be the game winner, but Henrik Sedin would add an empty netter to secure the game at 19:39 of the third period.
Kesler has been absolutely huge for the Canucks in this series, especially in games three and four. He has three goals and three assists in the past two games, and his game winning goal last night was nothing short of awesome. He has really picked up the slack for a struggling Daniel Sedin.
Don’t count out the Predators just yet, though. They play a tough game of hockey, and have an absolutely stellar netminder. Plus, don’t forget last series when the Canucks let Chicago walk right back into that series by losing three straight. They’re going to have to start getting more shots on goal if they want to win though. Their 21 shots in a losing effort last night will not cut it.
