Ducks erase early deficit, top Nashville

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Nick Ritchie scored the tiebreaking goal late in the second period, and the Anaheim Ducks roared back from an early two-goal deficit to even the Western Conference finals with a 5-3 victory over the Nashville Predators in Game 2 on Sunday night.

Jakob Silfverberg, Sami Vatanen and Ondrej Kase also scored while the Ducks cracked imposing goalie Pekka Rinne with a thrilling surge of four goals in less than 19 minutes. The Predators hadn’t allowed four goals in any game during their excellent Stanley Cup playoff run before Anaheim finally got rolling for its sellout crowd.

John Gibson stopped 30 shots, and Antoine Vermette had an empty-net goal for the Ducks.

Ryan Johansen, James Neal and Filip Forsberg scored for the Predators

Game 3 is Tuesday night in Nashville.

Rinne made 22 saves for the Predators, who faced relatively little adversity while steamrolling Chicago and St. Louis in the first two rounds on the way to the first conference finals in franchise history.

Two days after Nashville’s 3-2 overtime victory at Honda Center in the series opener, Johansen and Neal scored in the opening 8:32 of Game 2.

The Ducks finally awakened at the prospect of their second straight 0-2 series deficit and replied with high-octane hockey — and a few fortunate bounces — that was too much even for Rinne, who hadn’t given up four goals in a game since March 13.

Ritchie scored the winning goal in Game 7 against Edmonton. Four days later, he got his next major goal on an exceptional high shot that appeared to glance off Rinne’s mask.

Anaheim survived a few mad scrambles before captain Ryan Getzlaf got his third assist of the night on Vermette’s empty-netter.