Riding the momentum of their Game 1 win Friday night, the Nashville Predators broke out to a 2-0 first period lead Sunday over the Ducks in Anaheim.
With less than 10 minutes gone n the game, Ryan Johansen and James Neal scored 
for the Preds to silence the traffic depressed crowd at the Honda Center.
The Ducks were disorganized and pushed around much of the first period but Sami Vatanen scored a power play goal with one minute left in the frame to turn things around.
“Changed the game, changed the momentum,” Nashville head coach Peter Laviolette said.
The power play goal snapped an 0-for-21 stretch for Anaheim.
“We haven’t scored many goals on the power play so far, but let’s hope the ketchup bottle is open now and we can keep scoring,” Vatanen said.
Jakob Silfverberg tied game early in the middle frame before Nashville got back on the board with a goal from Filip Forsberg for a 3-2 lead for the Preds.
Before the second period ended, Ondrej Kase and Nick Ritchie scored for Anaheim to give them a 4-3 lead they would not relinquish.
John Gibson made 30 saves to get the win after a shaky start and collision in the crease.
“Everybody says we go about it the hard way,” Gibson said. “As long as we get the job done, that’s all we’re worried about.”
Antoine Vermette closed out the scoring with an empty net goal with under a minute left in regulation for the 5-3 final.
Ryan Getzlaf picked up three assists in the win.
“Tonight’s response after getting down 2-0 is a character-builder for our group. We believe we can go into any building and play with the teams we’re up against and give ourselves a chance for success,” Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle said after the rally.
[WATCH: All Ducks vs. Predators highlights | RELATED: Complete Anaheim vs. Nashville series coverage]
Pekka Rinne made 22 saves in the loss and was soft on at least two of the goals including Ritchie’s second-period that eluded Rinne.
“I got lucky and got the puck up there,” Ritchie said.
After the Vatanen goal in the first period, Nashville sagged a bit and stopped taking the body as much as they did through the first q5 minutes of the game.
“I thought from a defensive standpoint we could have been a little bit tighter, a little bit quicker to what we were doing, a little bit more mindful of what we were doing,” Laviolette said.
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