ANAHEIM, Calif. _ There is no stopping the Nashville Predators when it comes to jumping out to a playoff series lead on the road.
James Neal scored at 9:24 of overtime to lift the Predators a 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks in Game 1 at Honda Center on Friday night, giving Nashville the jump on the Western Conference finals as it did in the first two rounds.
The Predators won at Chicago to kick off a four-game sweep in the opening round and then walked out of St. Louis with a Game 1 victory in eventually eliminating the Blues in six games. Now they've made the Ducks their latest victim.
As the Ducks were scrambling around in their own end, Neal got the puck and slapped a one-timer that kicked off the Ducks' Corey Perry in front and hopped over goalie John Gibson. Gibson had been often valiant for the Ducks in defeat, making 43 saves.
Game 2 is Sunday night in Anaheim. The Ducks must try to avoid falling to an 0-2 deficit for the second straight series.
Hampus Lindholm lifted the Ducks with his first goal of the playoffs at 7:21 of the third to tie the game at 2. Until that point, the Ducks were getting flashbacks of the Pekka Rinne they saw in last spring's Game 7 that allowed the Predators to bounce them out of the first round.
Rinne made outstanding back-to-back saves on Rickard Rakell and Ryan Getzlaf deep into the second period, with the latter one done with his outstretched left pad to foil Getzlaf's golden rebound chance.
It was another display of his terrific work this postseason. But the Ducks have been nearly unbeatable in the faceoff circle and they found a way to beat the goalie off another decisive win.
Nate Thompson got a clean victory over Nashville's Calle Jarnkrok and won the puck back to Lindholm at the point. Lindholm spotted a sliver of space that the screened Rinne left open on the short side and put a perfect shot off the post and in.
The goal energized the Ducks, who kept up their pressure but soon hurt themselves with penalties. Getzlaf put the puck over the glass for a delay-of-game infraction and Thompson followed with one of his own just 33 seconds later.
A much-maligned penalty kill that was the worst among the eight teams that played into the second round finally showed the form that made it fourth-best in the NHL through the regular season. And it was never better in a 5-on-3 Nashville situation that it had to defend.
Gibson made two gigantic saves, with the second one on a rocket by the Predators' Roman Josi. Cam Fowler and Ryan Kesler had blocked shots that forced Nashville to reset, while Sami Vatanen cleared the puck around the boards and down the ice with an authoritative swing of his stick.
The late-arriving sellout crowd was charged up when Thompson left the penalty box. And the Ducks kept pressing until the end of regulation, with Rinne forced to do whatever he could to keep the puck out and his teammates blocking any shot they could.
It appeared as if the Ducks had to overcome the letdown of a quick turnaround following their emotional Game 7 win over Edmonton on Wednesday. The Predators hadn't played since their series-clinching win over St. Louis on Sunday and they looked refreshed and raring to go.
In a dominating opening half to the first period, Nashville racked up 13 shots to the Ducks' one. And it got a deflection goal from skilled scorer Filip Forsberg at the 12:34 mark. All it did was get them tied as the Ducks' Jakob Silfverberg scored on their only shot, a wicked wrister that flew past Rinne.
Austin Watson gave the Predators a working 2-1 lead early in the second with a one-timer for his first career playoff goal.
