Pontus Aberg’s goal puts Predators past Ducks, 3-1, in Game 5

ANAHEIM, Calif.—Pontus Aberg scored his first career playoff goal with 8:59 to play, and the Nashville Predators moved to the brink of their first Stanley Cup Final with a 3-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals Saturday night.

Aberg scored on a rebound of Filip Forsberg's shot for the Predators, who took a 3-2 series lead despite the injury absence of top scorer Ryan Johansen and captain Mike Fisher.

Pekka Rinne made 32 saves in the Finnish goalie's latest dominant playoff performance in Anaheim, where the Predators have won five of their last seven playoff games over two seasons.

Chris Wagner scored for the Ducks, who lost starting goalie John Gibson to injury during the first intermission. Game 6 is Monday night in Nashville. Jonathan Bernier took over and stopped 16 shots in his first appearance in nearly two weeks for the Ducks, who already were without 30-goal scorers Rickard Rakell and Patrick Eaves before losing Gibson to a lower-body injury.

Anaheim was knocked out of the playoffs last year by Nashville, and the Ducks are facing their second elimination game of the postseason after winning Game 7 against Edmonton in the second round.

The Predators still haven't lost backto-back games at any point in what's looking like a charmed playoff run for an 18-season-old franchise that's finally one game from playing for the Stanley Cup.

After Colin Wilson scored the tying power-play goal late in the second period for the Predators, Aberg went flying when he stretched out to guide home Forsberg's rebound for the tiebreaker.

The 23-year-old Swede has only one goal in his 15 games of regular-season NHL experience, but Nashville's injuries thrust him into a key role alongside Forsberg on its top line.

Austin Watson added an empty-net goal in the final minute, emphatically ending Anaheim's streak of seven consecutive Game 5 victories at home since 2011. The last team to beat the Ducks in a Game 5 at Honda Center also was Nashville.

Aberg and several other role players all came up big in the Predators' first game of the season without Johansen, their top-line center and leading postseason scorer. Johansen had emergency surgery shortly after Game 4 and was ruled out for the rest of the playoffs.

Fisher missed his first game of his scoreless postseason with an undisclosed injury after taking a hit to the head in Game 4.