Nashville vs. Vancouver- Nashville head coach Barry Trotz perhaps said the best thing to his team before they took the ice in Vancouver for game 5. He said “We will be getting on a plane going back to Nashville tomorrow. Why don’t we bring Vancouver back with us.” That and other messages he sent to his team worked, as they were able to defeat the Canucks on the road and live to fight another game with a 4-3 victory.
Of the seven goals scored in the game, three players each scored twice. Nashville was led by forward Joel Ward, who scored two goals along with recording an assist. Teammate David Legwand lit the lamp twice himself. Ryan Kesler scored twice for the Canucks in the losing effort.
The only special teams goal was the first one of the game, when Nashville found the back of the net while shorthanded when Ward stole the puck from Daniel Sedin and was able to feed a pass to Legwand who fired a wrist shot past Roberto Luongo. Just over two minutes later, Raffi Torres scored his first of the postseason when he was able to get the puck past Pekka Renne. Kesler’s first game game just before the end of the period to give the home team the lead after the first period.
The only goal of the second period came courtesy of Legwand when he was behind the net and deflected the puck off Luongo and into the net. It was the third period that went in favor of the Predators when Ward scored twice in a span of 4:30. Both goals happened because the Canucks were unable to clear the puck of their own zone. The goal at 1:14 happened thanks to a one-timer to Ward from Mike Fisher. The game winning goal occured 5:45 in the third period when he took advantage of another failed opportunity to clear the zone and he was able to put a wrist shot past Luongo.
Vancouver did score with under four minutes remaining when a wide-open Kesler put a wrist shot from the top of the left circle past Renne. Renne finished the game with 31 saves on 34 shots while Luongo made 19 saves on 23 shots. Game six is Monday night in Nashville at 8:00 p.m. EDT on Versus and CBC.
