VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 7 (UPI) -- Joel Ward's two scores early in the third period gave Nashville a two-goal lead Saturday and the Predators stayed alive with a 4-3 playoff win over Vancouver.
Nashville cut its deficit to 3-2 in the Western Conference semifinals and will host Game 6 Monday. If a seventh game is needed, it will be played in Vancouver Wednesday. The home team has won just once in the series.
Vancouver, which finished with the NHL's best record during the regular season, failed three times to close out its conference quarterfinal series against Chicago before finally winning Game 7.
The Canucks held a 2-1 lead Saturday going into the second period, but David Legwand tied it 51 seconds into the stanza and it remained deadlocked heading into the third.
Ward then scored his sixth and seventh goals of the playoffs during the first 6 minutes of the third. Ryan Kesler delivered his second goal of the game with 3:46 to play, but the Canucks could not put another one past Pekka Rinne.
Rinne made 31 saves to get the victory. Roberto Luongo stopped just 19 shots for the Canucks, who are trying to reach the conference finals for the first time in 17 years.
