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 Filip Forsberg scored with 9 minutes, 35 seconds to play to give
the Predators a 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks in the first game
of the Western Conference quarterfinals in front of a
standing-room-only crowd of 17,236 at the Honda Center.
James Neal and Craig Wilson also scored while goalie Pekka Rinne
stopped 27 shots for the Predators.
"It was an evenly matched game," said Nashville defenseman Ryan
Ellis, who added that the final score "was exactly what we expected
the result to be."
Ryan Getzlaf and Ryan Kesler scored the Ducks' goals, and goalie
John Gibson made 30 saves.
"It was a matter of giving them too many opportunities," Anaheim
left winger Andrew Cogliano said about the Predators. "They're good
at transitioning and capitalizing on mistakes. A few of those goals
were exactly that. We have to manage the puck a lot better."
 Game 2 will take place Sunday night at the Honda Center.
Forsberg broke a 2-2 tie at 10:25 of the third period. After
poke-checking the puck away from Anaheim defenseman Simon Despres in
the Predators' end, Forsberg skated unmolested down the left wing,
deked past the Ducks' Jamie McGinn and passed the puck toward Craig
Smith, stationed behind Anaheim defenseman Shea Theodore.
But Forsberg's pass hit Theodore's left skate and slowly skidded
just beyond Gibson's left skate and glove inside the right post.
Kesler gave the Ducks a 2-1 lead 48 seconds into the second period.
Andrew Cogliano passed from the right boards to an onrushing Kesler,
who dragged a wrist shot from the rear edge of the left circle that
deflected off the underside of the crossbar.
But Wilson re-tied the score more than seven minutes later. Ellis
skated along the right wing from the Predators' end and sent a pass
from the right circle to Wilson, who deflected the puck under
Gibson's glove and inside the right post at 7:55.
"At the beginning of the second period, after we scored to take the
lead, they took it to us for the first 10 minutes," Anaheim coach
Bruce Boudreau said. "They pushed it to the limit, physically. That
tipped goal changed the momentum."
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Ellis then blocked the potential tying goal with 5:24 left in the
second period. As McGinn tried to convert the rebound of Rickard
Rakell's shot, Ellis slipped at the goal line and blocked McGinn's
shot while on his back and with Rinne falling on top of him.
"That was more fluky than anything else," Nashville coach Peter
Laviolette said. "I'm not sure that was the plan when he went down,
but he found himself there and put up a wall on the goal line."
Neal scored 35 seconds into the game, and five seconds after another
scoring chance went awry.
Calle Jarnkrok and Shea Weber had a 2-on-0 breakaway but after Weber
received Jarnkrok's pass, Gibson dived to block the shot at the
right post. Jarnkrok recovered the puck behind the net and passed it
toward the left corner.
As Despres and Nashville's Ryan Johansen pursued the puck, Johansen
poked it with his stick to Neal, whose wrist shot ricocheted off
Gibson's glove and inside the right post.
"We knew they were going to be jacked up at home," Neal said. "We
quieted the crowd down a little bit with that early goal, and you
feed off that."
Getzlaf tied the score during a 5-on-3 power play. The Predators'
Anthony Bitetto went to the penalty box for holding an opponent's
stick at 16:15 of the first period. Weber joined him 35 seconds
later for cross-checking.
The Ducks' Cam Fowler dragged a wrist shot from the slot that Rinne
blocked with his right leg pad. But Getzlaf deposited the rebound
inside the right post for his 28th career playoff goal.
Anaheim defenseman Josh Manson left the game with an upper-body
injury. Manson's right arm was in a sling in the Ducks' locker room
after the game.
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