VANCOUVER, B.C. — Roberto Luongo stopped 20 shots and made Chris Higgins’ second-period goal stand up in the Vancouver Canucks’ 1-0 win over the Nashville Predators in the opener of the Western Conference semifinals Thursday night.
It was Luongo’s second shutout of these playoffs and the third of his NHL postseason career. He made nine saves in the third period, including a short-handed breakaway by Mike Fisher 5:20 in.
Pekka Rinne had several spectacular stops among his 29 saves to keep the Predators in the game despite his club being outshot 30-20.
The Canucks got right back into action just two days after beating archrival Chicago in overtime of Game 7 of a series in which Vancouver had held a 3-0 lead.
But it was the fifth-seeded Predators who were a bit road-weary after arriving in Vancouver on Wednesday night. Nashville, off since eliminating the Ducks in Game 6 on Sunday, came out flat in its first second-round game in team history.
Vancouver outshot Nashville 16-5 in the first period, but couldn’t beat Rinne, who made the best of a handful of great saves with his glove.
Higgins finally scored on the Canucks’ 24th shot, taken with 7:46 left in the second after a turnover at the Nashville blue line led to a 3-on-1 down low. But play continued even after the goal was scored.
Higgins, who also opened the scoring in the first round, took a cross-ice feed from Maxim Lapierre in the slot and fired a shot as Rinne stacked the pads while sliding across. The puck went off Rinne, and up and under the crossbar. It came back out of the net so quickly, the referee signaled no goal as Higgins began to celebrate. A video review confirmed the puck struck something inside the net before popping out.
