Preds pull ahead of Ducks
AHL call-up, Aberg, nets winner to give Nashville 3-2 lead over Anaheim
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Pontus Aberg spent most of the season in the minors, and he had a part-time depth role for the Nashville Predators in these Stanley Cup playoffs until injuries thrust him into a key role in Game 5 of the Western Conference final.
And now the unassuming Swede has another new role for Nashville: He’s the hero of the latest clutch victory in the Predators’ increasingly irresistible Stanley Cup push.
Aberg scored his first career playoff goal with 8:59 to play, and the Predators moved to the brink of their first Stanley Cup Final with a 3-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks to take a 3-2 series lead on Saturday night.
Aberg had to send himself flying across the crease to swat home a rebound of Filip Forsberg’s shot for the Predators, epitomizing Nashville’s persistent effort through a defensive victory.
A moment before he scored the biggest goal of his life, Aberg was upended during a scramble. He had to be taken off the ice for medical evaluation immediately after his celebration, but his teammates hung on to move one win away from playing for hockey’s ultimate prize.
“I face-planted there and lost my tooth, but it didn’t hurt my head,” Aberg said with a smile.
Not much seems to wound these resilient Predators, who overcame the injury absence of top scorer Ryan Johansen and captain Mike Fisher.
Nashville leaned heavily on goalie Pekka Rinne and got barely enough offence to survive, with Colin Wilson scoring the tying goal late in the second period and Austin Watson adding an empty-netter.
“We knew coming into tonight that we’ve just got to come together, play well defensively and grind it out,” Rinne said. “That’s what we did. We showed a lot of character.
“For us, the first couple of rounds was fairly smooth sailing. Things were going our way. You deal with adversity, it’s something that every team is going to face, and I feel like we handled it really well.” Game 6 is Monday night in Nashville. Aberg, who also has one career NHL regular-season goal, was only in position to win it because the Predators were on a counterattack after a prolonged scramble in front of Nashville’s net.
Rinne, who made 32 saves, ended that frantic sequence prone in the starfish pose, frustrating the Ducks for the umpteenth time and earning his fifth victory in Nashville’s seven playoff games at Honda Center over the past two seasons.
Chris Wagner scored the only goal on a frustrating day for the Ducks, who began the game without injured 30-goal scorers Rickard Rakell and Patrick Eaves before losing starting goalie John Gibson to a lower-body injury after the first period.
Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said Gibson wants to play in Game 6, but will need to be re-evaluated.
Anaheim’s collection of veteran stars and up-and-coming talent will have to win back-to-back elimination games to avoid crashing out in the conference final for the second time in three years.
“We’ve got to do a better job maintaining what we want to do with our game plan, because they played hard tonight,” said Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf.