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Preds try to stay alive in Game 6 against visiting Canucks

May 9, 2011 - 2:32 PM (Sports Network) - The Nashville Predators will again try to stave off elimination in the Western Conference semifinals, as they host the top-seeded Vancouver Canucks in tonight's Game 6 at Bridgestone Arena.

The Predators were down 3-1 in the series before taking Game 5 in Vancouver on Saturday. With another victory tonight, Nashville will tie the set and force a decisive seventh game this Wednesday in Vancouver.

Nashville stayed alive thanks to a strong performance by Joel Ward in Game 5 at Rogers Arena. Ward, who has seven goals and five assists in this year's playoffs, scored a pair of third-period goals to help the Predators take a 4-3 decision.

Ward also had an assist, while David Legwand scored twice for the fifth-seeded Predators, who won a game when facing elimination for the first time in franchise history. Pekka Rinne stopped 31 shots in the victory.

"We were excited coming in and as a group we always rise to adversity," said Ward. "We just tried to treat this as another game and not put too much pressure on ourselves and execute."

Ryan Kesler scored twice and Raffi Torres added a goal and an assist for the Canucks, who are looking to reach the conference finals for the first time since 1994. Roberto Luongo made 19 saves in the loss.

"They came out real strong and had a lot of energy to start," said Vancouver head coach Alain Vigneault. "I thought we played a good first period, but things started to slip away for us in the third."

Vancouver has a poor 1-4 record when it has a chance to eliminate a team this postseason. Of course, the Canucks led Chicago three-games-to-none in the opening round, but needed to win Game 7 to take the series. Vancouver has lost just one series in its history when holding a three-games-to-one lead, losing in seven games to Minnesota in the 2003 conference semifinals.

The Sedin twins had an awful showing in Game 5, as Vancouver's star forwards went without a point and combined for a minus-seven rating. Daniel Sedin, who led the NHL with 104 points this year, has just two assists in this series. Henrik Sedin has a goal and two assists in the set and all of those points came in Game 4.

With the Sedins struggling, Kesler has shouldered the offensive load for the Canucks in this series, posting five goals and four assists. He scored the game-winning tallies for Vancouver in both of the games played in Nashville.

Four of the five games in this series have been decided by just one goal. The lone exception was in Game 4 when Vancouver claimed a 4-2 victory in the Music City.

The Predators, who are in the second round of the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, lost both of their home games in this series and are 2-3 as the host in this postseason. Nashville was 24-9-8 as the home club during the regular season.

The Canucks are 3-2 on the road in these playoffs and had a stellar 27-10-4 record as the visiting team in the regular season.

Vancouver will be forced to play tonight without veteran forward Mikael Samuelsson, who suffered a lower body injury in Game 5 and will not make the trip to Nashville. Samuelsson had a stellar postseason last spring with eight goals and seven assists, but he has just one goal and two helpers in the 2011 playoffs.

Nashville is expected to be without forwards Steve Sullivan (lower body) and Jerred Smithson (upper body) again tonight. Sullivan has sat out the last two contests and Smithson missed Game 5. Preds forward Nick Spaling (shoulder) is expected to play this evening.

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