NHL - Playoffs - Nashville Predators @ San Jose Sharks 1-5 - Saturday, May 07, 2016 - Game 5

The San Jose Sharks bounced back from a triple-overtime loss to the Nashville Predators and now are one win from reaching the Western Conference Final for the first time since 2011. Joe Pavelski scored two goals, Martin Jones made 24 saves, and the Sharks defeated the Predators 5-1 in Game 5 of the Western Conference Second Round at SAP Center on Saturday. The Sharks have a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 series and can end it by winning Game 6 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Monday.
Patrick Marleau, Logan Couture and Melker Karlsson scored for the Sharks.
Mike Fisher scored for Nashville, and Pekka Rinne gave up four goals on 27 shots before he was pulled for Carter Hutton with 3:01 left to play.
The Predators defeated the Sharks 4-3 in triple overtime in Game 4, a physically and emotionally taxing game that didn't end until after 1 a.m. in Nashville. The Sharks generated enough energy Saturday to take a 2-1 first-period lead on goals by Marleau and Pavelski and kept turning up the pressure. Marleau scored his third goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at 10:47. Joonas Donskoi got a loose puck along the end boards and started skating left to right behind the net but sent a backhand pass to Marleau, who beat Rinne with a slap shot from below the left circle.

DeBoer shuffled his bottom three lines, and one of his changes was moving Marleau from third-line center to second-line left wing with Donskoi and Couture, whose strong forecheck set the scoring play in motion. The Predators tied it 1-1 at 15:40 of the first when Fisher, who scored twice in Game 4, including in overtime, scored his fifth of the playoffs. Colin Wilson sent a pass from below the goal line to James Neal, who shot from the right circle, and Fisher tapped it in from close range. The Wilson-Fisher-Neal line has seven goals and six assists since being reunited in Game 3.
San Jose took a 2-1 lead on Pavelski's goal at 17:21. Joe Thornton sent a quick backhand pass from the right boards through traffic to Pavelski, who beat Rinne with a slap shot from the right circle. Couture took a long pass from Donskoi and scored on a breakaway 35 seconds into the second period for a 3-1 lead. Couture faked left, went right and put the puck through the five-hole with a backhand for his fourth of this series. Pavelski scored again on the Sharks' first power play with 38 seconds left in the second, making it 4-1. Nashville defenseman Roman Josi went to the penalty box for tripping Couture, and Pavelski scored nine seconds later, taking a pass from Marleau in the right circle and sending a slap shot past Rinne to the far side.

Pavelski has eight playoff goals, tied with Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the lead. Karlsson scored with 49.7 seconds left in the third period.
The Predators were down 3-2 in the first round to the Anaheim Ducks but won the series in seven games. San Jose forward Dainius Zubrus made his 2016 playoff debut, replacing Tommy Wingels on the fourth line. DeBoer used the same lineup for the first nine playoff games before making the switch. Nashville forward Mike Ribeiro returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for Games 3 and 4, when rookie Pontus Aberg took his place. Aberg was a healthy scratch Saturday, and Ribeiro centered the third line.

Sharks Quotes

Peter DeBoer: "We've still got some work to do. They're a very good team, and we've seen that. I like the fact that I think we're getting better as the series has gone on here. I think every game we're getting a little bit better, getting more contributions, playing better as a team. We've got to carry that into Game 6, because they're not going to roll over. We know that."
Joe Pavelski: "The guys really wanted it. We felt after that last game we played a couple really good periods, some of our better periods of the playoffs. We had to carry that. It was up to us to really get that momentum back. Guys did a good job coming out."
Logan Couture: "I thought we were pretty good for 60 minutes. That was probably the best we've been since the L.A. series (a five-game first-round win). We got better in Game 4, played really well tonight. But this game ends and the next one will start in a little bit, so we have to play as well or better."

Other Results - Friday, May 06, 2016

Tampa Bay @ NY Islanders 2-1 OT - Game 4 - Bolts Lead Series 3-1
For the second straight game, the Tampa Bay Lightning took everything the New York Islanders could throw at them, tied the game in the third period and won in overtime. Jason Garrison scored 1:34 into OT to give the Lightning a 2-1 victory against the Islanders in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Second Round series at Barclays Center on Friday. Garrison beat New York goalie Thomas Greiss with a shot from the right point that went through traffic after the Lightning hemmed the Islanders in their own zone. As was the case in Game 3 on Tuesday, the Lightning played from behind for most of the night before pulling even and then totally dominating before scoring a quick goal in overtime.
For the second straight game, Nikita Kucherov got the third-period goal that forced overtime, though he didn’t wait until the final minute as he did Tuesday in Tampa Bay’s 5-4 victory. Kucherov tied it 1-1 at 7:49 of the third period, taking a feed from behind the net by Tyler Johnson and beating Greiss to the short side from near the left faceoff dot. It was Kucherov’s NHL-leading eighth goal of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Kucherov had 10 goals and 22 points in the Lightning’s run to the Stanley Cup Final last year, and Cooper said his performance this spring is more than luck. Lightning goalie Ben Bishop made 27 saves, allowing only a first-period power-play goal by Kyle Okposo. He was under siege in the first period, when the Islanders outshot the Lightning 16-6.

Greiss made 19 saves, and rookie Jean-Francois Berube made two while playing briefly in the second period. Greiss left 1:27 into the period when his right skate blade broke; Berube played 4:47 before Greiss returned. The Islanders took advantage of their first power play to take a 1-0 lead 4:20 into the game. After Tampa Bay’s Mike Blunden was called for roughing Ryan Strome, Okposo found a dead spot in the defense inside the left circle, took a passout by Nikolay Kulemin and beat Bishop to the top far corner for his second goal of the playoffs. New York had two more excellent chances before the first period was 10 minutes old. At 9:11, Strome’s tip-in try hit Bishop and slid under him, but a video review upheld the call on the ice that the puck did not cross the goal line. Less than 40 seconds later, Shane Prince picked up a rebound in the slot and hit the crossbar. The Islanders also failed to capitalize later in the period when Lightning forward Ryan Callahan was assessed a double minor for roughing. But they ended the period up 1-0 after holding Tampa Bay without a shot for the final 12:05. The Lightning picked up their game in the second period, outshooting the Islanders 11-6, but they were unable to score on three power plays, managing four shots on goal. The Islanders head for Tampa knowing that anything less than a win means their season is over.