|
 Colin Wilson, Paul Gaustad and Pekka Rinne ensured those
instructions would remain relevant.
Wilson and Gaustad scored in the first period as the Predators
eliminated the Anaheim Ducks from the Stanley Cup playoffs with a
2-1 victory in the seventh game of the series on Wednesday at the
Honda Center.
Rinne stopped 36 shots for the Predators, who will face the San Jose
Sharks on Friday in the first game of the conference semi-finals.
"I was able to see most of the shots," Rinne said. "Defensively, I
thought we did an excellent job. Sometimes, you have to win games
like that."
Ducks left winger Andrew Cogliano agreed.
"Tonight was probably one of our best offensive games in the series,
if not the best," Cogliano said, "but they gutted it out. They're a
tough team to play against in their own end because they cut cycles
off."
 The victory came in the first Game 7 in Predators history.
"It's a big step," Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. "If you
don't take this step, you can't take any more steps."
Ryan Kesler scored the only goal for the Ducks, who received 18
saves from goalie Frederik Andersen yet failed to win a seventh game
for the fifth time since 2009.
For the fourth consecutive year, opponents eliminated Anaheim in a
Game 7 while the Ducks served as the home team.
"We were playing catch-up the whole game, the whole series and all
year," Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf said. "It came to bite us at the
end."
Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau admitted that this loss in a Game 7
contained a stronger sting.
"With the way the score was and the way we were pushing, I'd say
yes, especially with how hard we had to push from November just to
get to where we were," Boudreau said. "We did everything the hard
way."
Rinne prevented the hosts from taking the lead about four minutes
after the opening face-off, when he did the splits while making a
lunging catch of Cam Fowler's slap shot from the blue line.
Wilson put Nashville ahead 6:19 into the game with his second goal
of the playoffs. Defenseman Mattias Ekholm flipped a high pass from
the left boards in the Predators' zone to Wilson at the Ducks' blue
line.
Wilson tried to feed a pass between Anaheim defensemen Simon Despres
and Clayton Stoner to Mike Fisher. Despres blocked the high pass
with his glove and deflected the puck to the ice.
However, before Despres could play the puck, Wilson stole it and
propelled a backhand inside the right post.
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"Those flipped-up pucks are hard to control for the defensemen,"
Wilson said. "I was just trying to wait. With the way 'Fish' was
going, pushing him back, I was fortunate enough for it to come up on
my stick."
That goal tied Wilson with Martin Erat for fourth place on the
Predators' all-time playoff goal-scoring list with eight.
Gaustad's second career playoff goal and first in the series
extended the lead to 2-0 at 15:53. With his stick at shoulder level,
Gaustad deflected Shea Weber's slap shot from the right point under
the crossbar. Boudreau challenged the call, which video replay
upheld.
Nashville needed the crossbar to keep the Ducks scoreless early in
the second period. After Rinne blocked Rickard Rakell's tip-in,
Jamie McGinn tried to convert the rebound with Rinne prone on the
ice. However, McGinn's shot hit the crossbar about five minutes into
the period.
"We knew they were going to make a push after we were up 2-0,"
Predators defenseman Roman Josi said. "But the defense was amazing
tonight. They've got a great cycle game and pass it to the points,
but our forwards did a great job getting in the shot lanes."
Kesler ended Rinne's quest for a shutout on a power play 1:45 into
the third period. The center one-timed a shot in front of the crease
off Jakob Silfverberg's pass from behind the net for his fourth
goal.
Anaheim came close to scoring the tying goal with about seven
minutes to play. Hampus Lindholm fired a shot from the blue line
that deflected off the back of Rinne's glove and slowly trickled off
the left post before Rinne covered it with his glove.
"It came down to seven games for a reason," Weber said. "Everything
about it was a battle, a fight. I guess it was only fitting it was
that close in the end, as well."
(Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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