Canucks 3 - 2 Predators
Final - OT
  for this game

Preds try to take series lead in Game 3 vs. Canucks

May 3, 2011 - 3:07 PM (Sports Network) - The Nashville Predators will try to use home ice to take a lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinals, as they host the top- seeded Vancouver Canucks in Game 3 tonight at Bridgestone Arena.

After dropping a 1-0 decision in the opener of this series on Thursday, the fifth-seeded Predators rebounded with a 2-1 double-overtime victory in Game 2 to earn a split in Vancouver.

The Canucks were closing in on a second straight 1-0 victory on Saturday when Ryan Suter tied the game at 1-1 on a tally with 1:07 left in regulation. Matt Halischuk then scored at the 14:51 mark of the second overtime to give Nashville the 2-1 victory.

In the second extra session, a neutral zone faceoff win saw Nashville work its way into the Vancouver end. Nick Spaling sent a pass from the left side to the right where Halischuk snapped a wrister over the glove of Roberto Luongo and under the crossbar for the win.

"They put pressure on the puck, they turned it over at the blue line, and Hally placed it right where he needed to put it on Roberto," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said.

Pekka Rinne was possibly the biggest star for Nashville in Game 2, as he stopped 32 shots for the Predators. Rinne, who along with Luongo is a finalist for this year's Vezina Trophy, has turned aside 61-of-63 shots so far in this series.

Alexandre Burrows scored the lone goal on Saturday and Luongo stopped 44 shots for the Canucks.

"It's never fun to lose in overtime," said Luongo. "We had our chances, unfortunately, Pekka made some good saves and kept them in it."

Vancouver has scored just nine total goals in six games since taking a 3-0 lead over Chicago in the opening round. Of course, the Canucks allowed the Blackhawks to win three straight in that series before taking the set with a 2-1 overtime decision in a decisive Game 7.

"You want to score more goals, that's the bottom line," Canucks star forward Henrik Sedin said. "We have to bear down on the chances we get, in overtime too we had a lot of chances to finish it off. That's something we need to take a look at."

The Canucks played Saturday's tilt without defenseman Sami Salo, who has sat out the last three games with a leg injury. The Finnish veteran is questionable for this evening's test.

The Predators are in the second round of the playoffs for the first time in franchise history and can take control of this series with Games 3 and 4 being played on home ice.

Nashville, which will also host the next game of this series on Thursday, was 24-9-8 as the home club this season and is 2-1 at Bridgestone Arena in this year's playoffs.

The Canucks were 1-2 in Chicago in the opening round of the playoffs, but had a stellar 27-10-4 record as the road team in the regular season.

Vancouver is trying to earn a berth in the conference finals for the first time since 1994, when they made it to the Stanley Cup Finals before bowing out to the New York Rangers in seven games.

Nashville and Vancouver split four games in the regular season series and this is the first time the clubs are meeting in the postseason.






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