In Vancouver, the Canucks entered the third period trailing the Nashville Predators by a 2-1 count.
They ended the third, and the game, with a 4-2 win after scoring three unanswered goals in the frame.
“It probably wasn’t my favorite game we played,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “We were a little sloppy with the puck, but I thought we handled the emotion, we handled the crowd, we handled the heavy forecheck, we handled the physicality. I thought we were starting to take over the game and we fall asleep on a shift in the offensive zone, lose assignments, don’t block a shot and it’s 2-2.”
Pius Suter tied the game, 2-2, at 8:59 of the third, scoring on a tip in of a shot form Quinn Hughes at the blue line.
Dakota Joshua then hit for a double for the Canucks.
His first came just 12 seconds later for a 3-2 lead, taking a feed from Connor Garland below the blue for a snap shot home. The goal came off the face off following the Hughes strike.
“It’s a special moment. I’ll never forget it,” Joshua said of the reaction after his goal. “And it makes you want to keep doing it.”
Joshua collected his double at 18:32 when he hit an empty net from the neutral zone for the 4-2 final count on the scoreboard.
“The building was crazy,” Joshua said. “You think you know what to expect until you get out there and you don’t. The fans were behind us all night and it was nice to pull through for them.”
Vancouver leads the series 1-0.
“We score that second goal to tie and it looked like everybody breathed a little bit, even the fans, like OK, we have that goal, but I have to credit that next shift,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “We didn’t rest on it. We got the puck in deep and obviously got the [third] goal there. So, that’s the sort of stuff, in playoff hockey you build on momentum, you get the crowd going, you try to build that momentum.”
Thatcher Demko made 20 saves in the win.
“Goose bumps for sure,” Vancouver’s Elias Lindholm said. “Just in the warmups, people are standing up, you’re kind of fired up, kind of have to control your emotions a little bit during the warmup. … It’s great to have playoff hockey. Obviously, it’s a lot of fun.”
Game 2 is et for Tuesday night in Vancouver.
Nashville took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a marker form Jason Zucker at 16:18, scoring off a wrister from the right circle.
The Canucks got even, 1-1, when Lindholm hit with 47 seconds gone in the middle frame, scoring with a shot from from above the left circle.
“(It) felt like we played a little slow there in the other power plays,” Predators captain Roman Josi said. “Couldn’t get much going, so that’s definitely something that needs to be better.”
The Predators had protected leads most of the season when heading into the third with the advantage going 32-4-1.
Use CodePHN15 Joshua earns #PHNChairoftheNight for his third period double
“It’s uncharacteristic for us the last 40 games or so,” Brunette said. “It was a little bit of a theme early in the year where the shift after a goal is so important and we just didn’t execute. There was a breakdown and a breakdown on the goal before, too, so a little disappointing. We haven’t done that in a long time.”
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