Predators a win away from playing for Cup
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 on 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 absences of Ryan Johansen, their top-line center and leading postseason scorer, and captain Mike Fisher.
Pekka Rinne made 32 saves in the goaltender’s latest dominant playoff performance in Anaheim, where the Predators have won five of their last seven playoff games over two seasons.
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 back-toback games at any point in what is looking like a charmed playoff run for an 18-season-old franchise, which finally is one game from playing for the Stanley Cup.
Game 6 is Monday night in Nashville.
Chris Wagner scored for the Ducks, who lost starting goaltender John Gibson to lowerbody injury after the first period. He was replaced by Jonathan Bernier, who stopped 16 shots in his first appearance in nearly two weeks.
Anaheim already was without 30-goal scorer Rickard Rakell, a surprise absence with a lower-body injury.
When Gibson failed to return for the second period, Bernier was sent into the fourth playoff game of his NHL career, and he immediately made a handful of strong stops. Wagner then put the Ducks ahead by cleaning up a rebound of a shot by defenseman Brandon Montour.
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 had only one goal in 15 games of regular-season NHL experience, but Nashville’s injuries thrust him into a key role alongside Forsberg on its top line. Johansen had emergency surgery shortly after Game 4 and was ruled out for the rest of the playoffs. Fisher has an undisclosed injury after taking a hit to the head in Game 4.
Austin Watson added an empty-net goal for Nashville in the final minute.
Getzlaf fined for slur
Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf was fined $10,000 on Saturday for apparently using a homophobic slur in Game 4 on Thursday. Getzlaf, the Ducks’ leading scorer in the postseason with 18 points in 15 games, was not suspended.
Getzlaf was captured by television cameras appearing to shout the remark in frustration with an official after returning to Anaheim’s bench during overtime. A year ago, Chicago forward Andrew Shaw was suspended for one game and fined $5,000 for directing a homophobic slur toward an official during a playoff game.