Music: {allcanada} Forsberg's two goals lead Predators past Canucks

Sunday, November 2, 2014

{allcanada} Forsberg's two goals lead Predators past Canucks

1989 - Taylor Swift / NCIS / The Crazy Ones

VANCOUVER -- Nashville Predators rookie Filip Forsberg sheepishly took credit for his first goal but was full value for his second.

After tying the game on a lucky power-play goal, Forsberg scored his second 6:42 into the second period to lead the Predators to a 3-1 win Sunday against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena.

Colin Wilson scored an insurance goal with 1:33 left and Pekka Rinne finished with 26 saves for the Predators, who are 2-1-0 midway through their season-long six-game road trip to accommodate the Country Music Association Awards being held in Nashville.

Forsberg, who moved into the rookie scoring lead with 11 points, was given credit for a power-play goal early in the second period when his wide shot was tipped in by Canucks defenseman Dan Hamhuis. He took advantage of a great play by James Neal to score his second.

Neal walked around defenseman Alexander Edler off the rush before losing the puck as he drove into the crease. Forsberg pounced on the loose puck and quickly snapped it over the shoulder of Canucks goalie Eddie Lack.

Edler scored on a power play and Lack made 30 saves in his first action in 10 days, but the Canucks' four-game win streak ended.

It may be a costly game for the Canucks, who lost defenseman Kevin Bieksa late in the first period with an apparent eye injury.

Bieksa appeared to take a puck near his right eye after coming together with two Predators players behind the Canucks net with 6:49 left to play in the first period. The puck popped straight up off his skate into his face and Bieksa dropped immediately to the ice. Bieksa headed to the dressing room holding a towel over his right eye.

Vancouver forward Tom Sestito also left clutching his left leg early in the second period after pulling up trying to accelerate out of his zone.

Coming off a 3-2 road win against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday, the Canucks opened the scoring with Nashville captain Shea Weber in the penalty box midway through the first period.

Weber took exception to a big hit by Luca Sbisa on Predators forward Taylor Beck and dropped the gloves with Sbisa. Weber received a double minor for roughing, while Sbisa got one roughing minor. Edler's point shot through a Daniel Sedin screen hit the cross bar, bounced off the back of Rinne and trickled over the goal line.

After a back-and-forth first period that featured several odd-man rushes and great saves, including a sprawled left pad robbery off Chris Higgins by Rinne, things settled down in the second.

The Predators outshot the Canucks (who were playing for the second straight night) 11-3 in the period, but it was a wide shot that tied the game. With Vancouver shorthanded after its fifth too-man-men penalty of the season, Forsberg's shot was headed wide before Hamhuis deflected it past Lack on the backdoor.

Lack was ventilated in his last start, a 7-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Oct. 24, and entered the game 0-2 with a .862 save percentage. He had to be good early; Vancouver surrendered several odd-man rushes, including one in which Lack stopped Neal on a 3-on-2.

Not to be outdone, Rinne made a handful of spectacular saves. He got a glove on Daniel Sedin's shot in alone 25 seconds into the game, denied Zack Kassian in tight and somehow dragged his left leg while sliding in the splits to rob Higgins.

Lack got his left pad on a Craig Smith blast from the slot early in the third period, but had little chance when Forsberg was left unchecked by Kassian after Neal easily walked around Edler. Lack got a glove on a point-blank Forsberg power-play chance a few minutes later to prevent the hat trick, but Wilson beat him over the shoulder from below the bottom of the left faceoff circle to make it 3-1.

Lack, who has made all three starts this season in the second half of back-to-back games, is still seeking his first win.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Doctor Sleep - Stephen King