Neal seals the deal in the opener
Winger’s overtime goal deflects off Perry, lifts the Predators over the Ducks.
All through the first two rounds of the playoffs, the Ducks wore a halo over their heads during overtime. Three previous times they prevailed in what seemed to be destiny.
That finally ended Friday night, even after the Ducks overcame a predictably tired start and got a playoff career-best 43 saves from goalie John Gibson, who helped them through a monster penalty kill just to get to overtime.
The Nashville Predators, fresh off four days’ rest, beat the Ducks 3-2 on James Neal’s goal 9:24 into overtime in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals at Honda Center.
The Ducks wearily walked back to their dressing room, just 48 hours after their Game 7 win against the Edmonton Oilers left them hungover at the start.
“I don’t think this time of the year you can have excuses,” Hampus Lindholm said. “You just have to go out there and play hard and win games. I think they wanted it a little more tonight.”
Neal one-timed a pass from P.K. Subban at the right circle and his shot deflected off Ducks forward Corey Perry into the net to end a game in which goaltending and penalty killing were spotlighted.
Gibson made four saves during a five-on-three Nashville advantage in the third period with the score tied at 2-2. The Ducks gifted Nashville with back-to-back delay-of-game penalties by Ryan Getzlaf and Nate Thompson for shooting the puck over the glass, but the Ducks killed the penalties.
“Usually you can take that energy and roll through the rest of the hockey game,” Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. “I thought we did that up until we gave up a goal in overtime. It was the first [overtime] goal we’ve given up in these playoffs. We’ve
been fortunate to win [three games] and now it doesn’t feel good because I think we had a couple of scoring chances but couldn’t find the back of the net in overtime.”
Neal earlier made a big hit on Brandon Montour at the Nashville bench.
Gibson made 37 saves in regulation, 30 in the first two periods.
He weathered a 13-1 shot edge by Nashville to start the game and it was 20-6 just before the Predators took a a 2-1 lead.
The Ducks needed every one of those saves because for 40 minutes they looked nothing like the team that methodically carried the play in the final two periods against Edmonton.
“They came and they took it to us in the first period,” Thompson said.
Lindholm tied the score at 2-2 with his first goal of the playoffs, a wrist shot that tucked inside the left post after Thompson’s faceoff win at 7:21 of the third period.
Nashville took advantage of the fatigued Ducks early with goals by Austin Watson and Filip Forsberg, who tipped Matt Irwin’s shot through traffic midway through the first period.
Forsberg created possession with a against Nick Ritchie.
It was that kind of start for the Ducks and their fans. Traffic around the arena resulted in scores of empty seats at the start.
But Jakob Silfverberg brought the arena alive with the steal a goal 5:15 into the game, on the Ducks’ first shot.
That was the lone highlight, though, in a forgettable opening period for the Ducks.
“Overall, we have to start from the get-go,” Lindholm said. “I think we kind of lost the game in the first period there.”