VANCOUVER, British Columbia – With Joel Ward scoring two goals less than five minutes apart early in the third period, the Nashville Predators stayed alive against the Vancouver Canucks with a 4-3 win Saturday night in Game 5 of their NHL Western Conference semifinal series.
David Legwand also scored twice, Pekka Rinne made 29 saves and Ward had three points for the Predators, who still trail 3-2 in the best-of-seven series but will return home for Game 6 on Monday night.
Ryan Kesler, who had his face stitched up after he was struck by a deflected puck, scored his second goal of the game with 3:46 left. Kesler has five goals in three games, but it wasn’t enough to put the Canucks into the conference finals yet.
The Predators, in the second round for the first time in franchise history, won for the first time when facing elimination. They had been 0-5.
Coming off a two-point effort in a Game 4 loss, Ward one-timed a cross-ice pass from Mike Fisher past the blocker of Roberto Luongo to put Nashville ahead 3-2 at 1:14 of the third. He pounced on a turnover inside the left circle 4:31 later and quickly snapped a shot past Luongo’s glove to make it a two-goal lead.