They don't win in impressive fashion but the scrappy Preds are still alive after a critical victory.
VANCOUVER -- There are a hundred different ways to skin this cat, but the undisputable fact is, after a 4-3 loss in Game 5 it is now officially out of the bag for the Vancouver Canucks.
While the Sedin brothers skated through yet another pointless, minus-7 performance, and Alexander Edler managed to personally negate another heroic night by teammate Ryan Kesler, this Nashville team that has made a series out of hanging around, did exactly what it does best.
Live to fight another day.
"These are the games you live for," said goaltender Pekka Rinne, who once again outplayed the guy at the other end of the rink. "You work hard all year long, and you get to play these games still? It feels great, for sure.
"It's going to be crazy," he said looking forward to a Game 6 in Nashville. "It's an amazing place for us to play … just a unique atmosphere. A lot of fun."
Yes, this little five-game series that was supposed to precede a meeting with the mighty San Jose Sharks just got a little more complicated.
Even though the Canucks won both Games 3 and 4 in Nashville, this won't be the same deal now. For a myriad of reasons -- two goals apiece by Joel Ward and David Legwand, the Sedins' continued dearth of production, Luongo allowing four goals on 16 shots, Edler's disastrous game -- the Canucks aren't resting and either are the Predators.
"We've taken a lot of steps this year in a lot of different areas, and that's just one other thing we had to do," a proud Nashville head coach Barry Trotz said. "We talked about one game, and we're going to talk about one game again. It was a great character test for everybody.
"This team is exactly what I told you: they are resilient and a great group to work with day in and day out. We are not perfect, but we do come to play."
This was the Canucks' fifth playoff game this spring where they could have eliminated their opponent. They've won one of them -- in overtime of Game 7 versus Chicago.
That's .200 in clutch situations. Not good.
"Tonight we battled hard. It wasn't a case like Chicago, where we gave them two games," said Henrik Sedin, who has points in just two of his past nine games.
"We're playing a lot better now," echoed his brother Daniel. "As a team, I thought we played good today. They didn't have a lot of chances, but the ones they had were clean ones. Sharpen that up, we'll be fine."
Truly, Rinne and the Predators team defence has forced the Canucks to toil like miners for every goal. So rare is a goal like the one scored by Ryan Kesler -- a beast again in Game 5, with two goals -- where a shot goes directly past Rinne without being tipped, or coming as a rebound.
Whereas at the other end, the chances the Predators enjoyed were far cleaner. Luongo was decent but only that, on a night when outplaying Rinne could have put an end to this series.
"Obviously not what we wanted. The mistakes that we made cost us," said Luongo, who had Edler punch one into his own net, and cough up a puck on another. "I don't think they did anything special - whatever they got we gave them. They didn't have anything extra. We dominated parts of the game, made some mistakes and they scored."
Nashville is, to be sure, one of the least skilled and most resilient groups we've ever witnessed play hockey in May.
"That's how they play -- tight-to-the-net defence," Luongo said. "Their guys block a ton of shots. They just stay in games. If we're not patient and we make mistakes, they take advantage of that."
More accurately, Joel Ward takes advantage of that.
With seven goals in the playoffs -- against just 10 in the regular season -- Ward is this spring's Fernando Pisani, a modern day John Druce.
Here's a guy who left pro hockey to use his junior scholarship money, spending four years at the University of Prince Edward Island. Then he kicked around Minnesota's system, ended up in Nashville, and to in this series he has single-handedly outscored the Sedin twins.
"A lot of people in hockey pools are not too happy," Ward said.
"When you enjoy what you're doing for a living … when you keep working hard, you get some bounces along the way," said the Toronto kid, a 31-year-old who is set to hit unrestricted free agency at season's end.
Did he ever think, while walking the halls of UPEI, that he would be here?
"Maybe not this exact moment, but I never really gave up the dream," he said. "I knew if I could play at the American League level, that the sky was the limit from there. I didn't just want to be known as a good university player, I wanted to be known as a good NHL player. That's what I've been striving to work hard for all of my life."
The Canucks need their best players to step up. They need to take over these elimination games, so they can get past these scrappy Preds and play the big boys from San Jose.
Is that too much to ask?
Henrik? Daniel? Alexander? Roberto?
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