Filip Forsberg’s hat trick led Preds over Chicago in Game 5 – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Rookie Filip Forsberg helped Nashville stave off elimination with his first career hat trick. A four-goal third period gave the Predators a 5-2 victory forcing a Game 6 back in Chicago Saturday night.
After the teams played 101 minutes two night ago, a slow-paced first period could have been expected. Instead, the teams played a frenetic pace that featured a stretch of over 10 minutes without a whistle.
The only reason play stopped is because Brad Richards made Cody Franson look like a turnstile en route to his first goal of the series. As the case with most games in this series, the Blackhawks lead was short-lived.
Chicago won a draw in their own zone, but Forsberg stole the puck and lifted it over Scott Darling’s shoulder, tying the game at one late in the first period. Forsberg scored his second goal of the series the same day he found out he was not a Calder Memorial Trophy finalist.
The final period was owned by the home team. James Neal gave the Preds a lead they wouldn’t relinquish 47 seconds into the third period. Colin Wilson scored the game-winning goal on the power play.
“It was a great game from our group,” Neal said. “I mean, you battle all year to put yourself in the playoffs and give yourself a chance to win. Our backs are against the wall, and you’ve got to do everything you can to win a game. I mean everyone says it, but you take one game at a time. That’s all you can do.”
Forsberg finished his hat trick with bookend goals. The final goal came on another power play, giving Nashville a playoff leading five as a team.
“The regular season is long,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “It all can’t be perfect in the course of the regular season, but certainly I think he found another gear. The speed for one thing has, I think, picked up in the pace of the playoffs. He’s playing at that speed that he needs to be in order to be successful.”
Kris Versteeg broke up the Nashville onslaught with his first goal of the playoffs 14:52 into the third period.
“We look at the games we’ve been playing, look at what [Darling] has been doing and what we can do better,” Forsberg said. “Obviously, he’s a big guy. If we can make him move, it’s going to hurt every goalie in this league. I think that was a big key for us with a couple goals on the movement there.”
All eyes will now shift to Joel Quenneville’s lineup decisions prior to Game 6. Historically the bench boss has been known to shake up the lineup after blowout losses. The next 48 hours will be interesting from the Chicago side.
When asked if Darling Will start Game 6 Quenneville said, “We’ll talk about it. He did everything right. He was fine.”
Nashville’s lineup got a boost as Mike Fisher returned from injury after missing the last three contests. All has remained silent out of the Predators camp on the health of captain Shea Weber. Time will tell if his lower body injury can heal before the team take the United Center ice.
“We just got sloppy,” Richards said. “Fed a lot of transition, outnumbered rushes, so we’ve got to get back to being stingier and paying attention to details with the puck. We just got a little out of control there, and that’s not necessarily why they scored the first goal out there, but we were sloppy and it kept them feeling it, feeling good, because they had a lot of rush chances and they had the puck a lot.”
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