Canucks pull off comeback, beat Predators in OT to take 3-1 series lead
CBC
Before the playoffs began, Vancouver Canucks coach Rick Tocchet asked some of his players to pick a word to describe their team.
They chose resilience.
On Sunday, the team showed why, clawing its way back from a two-goal deficit late in the third period, then scoring early in overtime to beat the Nashville Predators 4-3 in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series.
"[Resilience] is our word," Tocchet said. "It's been like that all year. Certain spots we've been put in, somehow we get out of them. They might not look pretty. Like tonight wasn't pretty. And we got out of it somehow."
The Canucks are now up 3-1 in the best-of-seven series and will have a chance to advance Tuesday when they host the Predators in Game 5.
Brock Boeser was Vancouver's engine Sunday, scoring his first hat-trick of the playoffs.
The rightwinger opened the scoring 2:55 into regulation, then dug Vancouver out of a two-goal deficit with a pair of goals in the final three minutes of the third period.
"I think the message is you can never give up until the final horn," Boeser said.
"We didn't give up there and we continued to battle back and we felt that momentum shift when we tied it up and we were feeling really good going into overtime."
Elias Lindholm sealed the victory, scoring 1:02 into overtime. Canucks forward J.T. Miller contributed three assists on the night.
Mark Jankowski replied to Boeser's first goal with a first-period tally for Nashville before Gustav Nyquist gave the Predators the lead in the second and Filip Forsberg added a goal early in the third.
Juuse Saros made 16 saves for Nashville and Arturs Silovs — in his first-ever NHL playoff appearance — stopped 27 of 30 shots for Vancouver.
"He made some big saves for us tonight, and he's a huge part of our win," Boeser told the Associated Press.
However Silovs said he wasn't nervous going in.
