Predators Rally Past Canucks, Stay Alive With Game 5 Win

The Nashville Predators are coming back home, and they're bringing the Vancouver Canucks with them.

Despite trailing 1-0 early in the third period of Game 5, the Predators rallied with two unanswered goals to a 2-1 win over the Canucks Tuesday at Rogers Arena. The win cut the Predators' series deficit to 3-2 and will send the series back to Nashville for Game 6 on Friday.

The game was scoreless after two periods despite a back-and-forth first 40 minutes. Vancouver was the more dominant team in the first period in terms of special teams and creating scoring chances, while Nashville controlled the second, but the game opened up at the start of the third. Vancouver finally opened the scoring at 3:11 of the final frame when Nikita Zadorov fired a tight-angle wrist shot from the left circle over the shoulder of Juuse Saros just under the crossbar.

Down 1-0 with under 17 minutes left to play, the Predators needed a hero to spark the late rally. Enter: Roman Josi .

The Predators captain answered on the power play four minutes later after a scrum in front of Canucks goaltender Arturs Silovs pushed the puck across the goal line. It was a much-needed goal for Nashville, not only to get the Predators on the board in Game 5 but also to jumpstart a sputtering power play that has gone just 2-for-19 during the first-round series.

"I felt like our breakouts weren't great the first [three power-play chances]," Josi said. "I had a lot of speed, kicked out to [ Filip Forsberg ]; Fil made a great play and he got it right back to me and I felt like I had a little bit of an opening. I tried to go around the goalie, and it somehow just laid there. I don't know what happened after, but it kind of laid there and I saw it go in. So, that's all that matters."

Four minutes later, Alexandre Carrier hammered a shot from the point that found a path to the net to give the Predators a 2-1 lead. Forsberg was credited with his second assist of the night, feeding the puck to Gustav Nyquist to set up the play for Carrier.

"[It was a] great pass by Gus, going a little bit high," Carrier said. "Then I just saw traffic and took the middle and just shot it. [Josi] said it was the hardest shot he's seen [from me]. I'm just happy it went in."

After Carrier's goal, Saros withstood a seven-minute barrage from the Canucks to help the Predators hold on for the win. Saros saved 19 of 20 shots as the Predators held Vancouver to fewer than 22 shots on goal for the fifth consecutive game.

The series continues with Game 6 Friday at Bridgestone Arena with a start time yet to be announced.