Suter, Silovs lead Canucks to Game 6 series win over Nashville Suter scores with 1:39 left in the third for the game's s only strike

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In Nashville, the Predators’ season came to an inglorious end on Friday night.  Pius Suter scored with 99 seconds left on the game clock in the third period to give the Vancouver Canucks a 1-0 lead.

“I got a little frustrated for a moment there, let it out quickly, and then obviously just tried to focus on the next shift,” Suter said. “Do the right things, and it will come. Luckily, it ended up happening.”

Suter was part of forecheck deep in the Predators zone that freed puck to Brock Boeser who sent a backhand pass from below the goal line on the right side to Suter in the slot for a redirect and the goal.

“That team, they play so hard, and every single line competes,” the Canucks’ J.T. Miller said. “They don’t give you freebies. They’re very aggressive, so I think sometimes we got our looks because of their aggressive nature. But when they’re on, they’re very hard to play against. They block so many shots. It’s very frustrating up front. You feel like you did everything right to get the look, and then they’re in the lane. It was a [heck] of a series.”

That was all the offense Vancouver goalie Arturs Silovs, who made 28 saves in the win.

“We got caught back on our heels a bit,” Nashville’s Ryan O’Reilly said. “I don’t know if it was kind of just frustration of not kind of generating anything, but they made a strong push back. It was too late. They got a big goal, and we just didn’t take the momentum back like we needed to. Give them credit, they played us well. It stings.”

For Silovs, it was his third straight start.  Both Thatcher Demko and Casey DeSmith have been shelved by injury for the Canucks.

“It wasn’t easy by any means,” Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes. “I feel like a couple of the games could’ve gone either way, obviously. Tonight can go into that bracket. It’s really hard to win at this level. They compete. They work really hard. They’ve got a lot of pride in their game. We were lucky enough to come out on top.”

The Canucks will face the Edmonton Oilers in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“You just see his demeanor,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said of Silovs. “Even when he was up as the third goalie, he was in practice and he works on his game. He’s juggling. He does these routines for hours in the hallway. You can just tell the moment is not too big. He’s calm in the net.

“I mean, this is the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and you’re the third goalie and you’ve got to go in there. That takes a lot of, you know what I’m saying, to do that and have the guys have confidence in him.”

With the primary assist on the series winner, Boeser made up for a double minor, high sticking penalty in the middle frame.

“That’s going to keep me up all night, probably,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “Looking on the flip side, they only got two power-play goals too [in the series]. I’d probably replay that last 33 seconds. I thought we had some things that were there that we missed. It needs to be better. I take responsibility for that. At the same time, we put ourselves in opportunities to make plays. We just, unfortunately, didn’t make the plays.”

Saros made 28 saves in the loss.