Predators oust Ducks from play-offs, Islanders get advantage over Lightning

Omnisports

April 28, 2016 3:33 AM

The Nashville Predators knocked the Anaheim Ducks out of the NHL play-offs, while the New York Islanders have the advantage in their series.

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The Nashville Predators are through to the second round of the NHL Stanley Cup play-offs after a 2-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks in game seven of their series.

Nashville were 3-2 behind in the first-round series before clinching back-to-back wins to advance at the Ducks' expense.

This was the fourth post-season running that the Ducks have lost game seven after blowing a 3-2 series lead.

The Predators took a surprise lead at the Honda Center on Wednesday just six minutes, 19 seconds into the first period through Colin Wilson.

A rare goal from Paul Gaustad further silenced the home crowd, with Anaheim finding themselves 2-0 down in the first period.

Ryan Kesler gave the Ducks some hope with a goal 1:45 into the third period but they could not find a way to tie the game in the closing stages.

The Predators now face a second-round Western Conference series against the San Jose Sharks.

The New York Islanders scored three first-period goals to set up a 5-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in game one of their second-round Eastern Conference play-off series.

Ondrej Palat had opened the scoring for the Lightning but the Islanders struck back through Travis Hamonic and a double from Shane Prince.

The Islanders' hero from the first round, John Tavares, made it 4-1 in the second period before Nikita Kucherov and Valtteri Filppula pulled the score back to within one.

However, with the Lightning searching for a game-tying goal, the Islanders capitalised to score into an empty net with under a minute left in regulation time.

Omnisports