Music: {allcanada} Halischuk's OT gets Predators even with Canucks

Saturday, April 30, 2011

{allcanada} Halischuk's OT gets Predators even with Canucks

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP)—Ryan Suter (notes) tied the game with 67 seconds left and Matt Halischuk (notes) won it 14:51 into double overtime as the Nashville Predators beat the Vancouver Canucks 2-1 on Saturday night and tied the Western Conference semifinal series 1-1.

After Pekka Rinne (notes) made several acrobatic game-saving stops in extra time, Halischuk took a cross-ice pass from Nick Spaling (notes) and fired a quick shot over a diving defender and past the glove of goalie Roberto Luongo (notes).

Alex Burrows scored a short-handed goal two minutes into the second period and it appeared Luongo would make it stand up for his second straight shutout in the series. But Suter tied it on Nashville's 36th shot, a harmless looking centering pass from below the goal line that went between Luongo's legs and bounced in off his left skate.

Luongo finished with 44 saves.

Game 3 is Tuesday at Nashville.

Rinne made the best of his 32 saves in overtime, including robbing Henrik Sedin (notes) alone atop the crease on a rebound, and a headfirst diving paddle stop to take an empty net from Kevin Bieksa (notes) with 2:14 left in the first overtime period. He stretched out to turn away Maxim Lapierre (notes) with his glove a minute later, as the Predators avoided losing consecutive games for the first time since early March.

It was the longest game in Predators history, and the third longest for the top-seeded Canucks, who won the series opener 1-0 on Thursday but have now given up home-ice advantage to Nashville.

The Predators will host the next two games before the series returns to Vancouver for Game 5.

Unlike the opener, in which the Canucks outplayed the Predators and Luongo's toughest task was staying awake, Nashville carried the play in Game 2. The Predators outshot Vancouver 36-15 in regulation, forcing Luongo to make several good saves, including a stacked-pads stop on Jordin Tootoo's (notes) breakaway with 8:46 left.

The best of the rest of his saves came against the Predators' power play. So did the Canucks' chances, and Burrows converted one early in the second period.

After stealing the puck from Sergei Kostitsyn (notes) in the neutral zone, Burrows broke in on the right wing 2-on-2 with Ryan Kesler (notes). His centering pass forced Rinne to push off the post, but it hit the skate of defenseman Shea Weber (notes) and bounced right back to Burrows, who quickly lifted it into an unguarded net on the shortside.

It was the fourth goal of the playoffs—all in the last four games—for Burrows. He scored both, including the overtime winner in Game 7 against Chicago on Tuesday. He had a busy week as his wife gave birth to their first child, a daughter, on Wednesday.

Luongo, who got a break when Joel Ward (notes) hit him as he was down on the goal line after a scramble in the first period, stuffed Mike Fisher (notes) on a 3-on-1 power play rush in the second. He added a right pad save on Weber's blast from the top of the circles, and just got David Legwand's (notes) wraparound try as Nashville pushed hard for the tying goal in the third.

But Luongo looked bad on Suter's shot from well below the goal line, ending his shutout streak at 126 minutes, 11 seconds—his best stretch in the playoffs.

Nashville failed to score during a power play after Vancouver was caught with too many men on the ice in the first overtime and another when the Canucks were called for delay of game early in the second extra period. The Predators were 0 for 4 overall on the power play and are 0 for 9 in the series. Overall against Vancouver this season, Nashville is 0 for 23 on the advantage.

NOTES: Predators RW Martin Erat (notes), who missed two games in Round 1 with a suspected concussion, left briefly after getting hit in the head by Weber's deflected slap shot. … Nashville coach Barry Trotz said he was considering using forwards J.P. Dumont (notes) and Colin Wilson (notes), but neither played. … Vancouver D Sami Salo (notes), out since Game 6 in Chicago because of an undisclosed injury, skated on his own Saturday and is expected to travel to Nashville.