Filip Forsberg scored with 9 minutes, 35 seconds to play to give the Nashville Predators a 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks in the first game of the Stanley Cup Western Conference quarter-finals on Friday night in front of a standing-room-only crowd of 17,236 at the Honda Center.
James Neal and Craig Wilson also scored, while goaltender Pekka Rinne stopped 27 shots for the Predators.
Ryan Getzlaf and Ryan Kesler scored the Ducks’ goals, while goaltender John Gibson made 30 saves.
Photo: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY
Game 2 is to be played today at the Honda Center.
Forsberg broke a 2-2 tie 10 minutes, 25 seconds into the third period. After poke-checking the puck away from one of the Ducks in the Predators’ end, Forsberg skated unmolested down the left wing and passed toward Craig Smith, who was stationed behind Anaheim defenseman Shea Theodore.
However, Forsberg’s pass hit Theodore’s skate and slowly skidded just beyond Gibson’s left skate and glove inside the right post.
Kesler gave the Ducks a 2-1 lead 48 seconds into the second period. Andrew Cogliano passed from the right boards to an onrushing Kesler, who dragged a wrist shot from the rear edge of the left circle that deflected off the underside of the crossbar.
Wilson re-tied the score about seven minutes later. Ryan Ellis skated along the right wing from the Predators’ end and sent a pass from the right circle to Wilson, who deflected the puck under Gibson’s glove and inside the right post.
Neal scored 35 seconds into the game, and five seconds after another scoring chance went awry.
Calle Jarnkrok and Shea Weber had a two-on-none breakaway, but after Weber received Jarnkrok’s pass, Gibson dived to block the shot at the right post. Jarnkrok recovered the puck behind the net and passed it toward the left corner.
As Nashville’s Ryan Johansen and Anaheim’s Simon Despres pursued the puck, Johansen poked it with his stick to Neal, whose wrist shot ricocheted off Gibson’s glove and inside the right post.
Getzlaf tied the score during a five-on-three power play.
The Ducks’ Cam Fowler dragged a wrist shot from the slot that Rinne blocked with his right leg pad. But Getzlaf deposited the rebound inside the right post for his 28th career playoff goal.
In Tampa, Florida, Tyler Johnson scored a pair of third-period goals to help the Lightning beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-2 in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series, which Tampa Bay lead 2-0.
Game 3 is today in Detroit.
In Sunrise, Florida, Roberto Luongo made 41 saves for his first playoff win in five years as the Panthers evened their Eastern Conference quarter-final series by beating the New York Islanders 3-1.
Game 3 is in Brooklyn today.
In St Louis, Missouri, Andrew Shaw stuffed home a rebound on a power play with 4 minutes, 19 seconds remaining, minutes after the Chicago Blackhawks won a coach’s challenge to negate a goal, as the defending Stanley Cup champions pulled even with the Blues in their series with a 3-2 win.
The series shifts to Chicago for Game 3 today.
In Anaheim, California, Filip Forsberg got credit for the tie-breaking goal as Nashville opened their first-round playoff series with a victory over Anaheim 3-2.
Game 2 is set for today in Anaheim.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with