LOS ANGELES — The Nashville Predators defeated the Anaheim Ducks 2-1 to confirm their place in the next round of the Stanley Cup playoffs Wednesday with a 4-3 series victory.
Colin Wilson and Paul Gaustad scored the goals for the Predators with Ryan Kesler netting the only goal for the Ducks in front of a sellout 17,407 crowd at the Honda Center in Anaheim.
Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne was in inspired form for the visitors, stopping 36 shots as the Predators set up a meeting with the San Jose Sharks Friday in the Western Conference semifinals.
Rinne had made a crucial early stop to prevent Anaheim taking the lead after four minutes, doing the splits to catch Cam Fowler’s slap shot.
Wilson put Nashville 1-0 up after 6:19, stealing from defenseman Simon Despres and whipping a backhand inside the right post.
The second playoff goal of Gaustad’s career made it 2-0 at 15:53. Gaustad diverted the puck in after deflecting Shea Weber’s slap shot and despite a challenge from Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau, the score stood.
Nashville lived dangerously and Anaheim was unlucky not to score when Jamie McGinn’s shot hit the crossbar about five minutes into the period.
Kesler ended Rinne’s hopes of a clean sheet after scoring on a power play in the third period.
Anaheim might have leveled with seven minutes left but Rinne did just enough to keep out Hampus Lindholm’s shot from the blue line and Nashville advanced.
Islanders down Lightning
In Florida, Shane Prince scored twice during a three-goal first period and John Tavares had a goal and an assist in the New York Islanders’ 5-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning Wednesday in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series.
Taking up where he left off in helping the Islanders advance beyond the first round for the first time in 23 years, Tavares assisted on Travis Hamonic’s goal that erased an early deficit and later scored his sixth postseason goal on a blistering shot from the left circle to give New York a 4-1 lead midway through the second.
The Islanders needed overtime to get three of four victories against the Florida Panthers in the opening round. This one was never seriously in doubt after New York wiped out the 1-0 lead Tampa Bay took on Ondrel Palat’s goal just over three minutes into the game.
Tampa Bay pulled to 4-3 on third-period goals by Nikita Kucherov and Valtteri Filppula before Cal Clutterbuck’s empty-netter sealed the victory in the final minute.
Thomas Greiss, who won one game in overtime and two in double overtime against Florida, finished with 33 saves for the Islanders. They were outshot 28-10 over the last two periods.
Game 2 is Saturday at Amalie Arena.
