NASHVILLE Jonathan Ericsson Jersey , Tenn. (AP) Connor Hellebuyck loves what he’s seeing in his first NHL postseason, and the 24-year-old goalie is doing his best to make sure the Winnipeg Jets do much more than just stick around.Hellebuyck made 47 saves and the Jets beat the Nashville Predators 4-1 on Friday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinal between the NHL’s top teams in the regular season.”I love the intensity, I love the game in front of me,” Hellebuyck said about the playoffs. ”It’s awesome and a little different. Intense is the right way to put it.”Not only did the teams top the standings, this series is the first between clubs with the most combined points ever before a conference finals after Nashville (117) edged Winnipeg (114) for the Presidents’ Trophy.Both the Jets and Predators brought a Vezina finalist into this series. Hellebuyck outdueled veteran Pekka Rinne, who was pulled after the second period after giving up three goals on 16 shots. Hellebuyck, who finished off Minnesota with back-to-back shutouts, picked up where he left off a week ago.Hellebuyck stretched his shutout streak to 163 minutes before Nashville finally scored. Coach Paul Maurice said the Jets weren’t at their best and can play better.”But we pay our goaltender, too,” Maurice said.Mark Scheifele scored two goals, including an empty-netter as the Jets were outshot 48-19. Brandon Tanev and Paul Stastny also scored to help the Jets – the NHL’s best home team in the regular season – steal home-ice advantage.Kevin Fiala scored for the Predators, which had won 11 of their last 14 playoff games in Nashville. Several Predators said they thought this was perhaps their best game of the season, talk coach Peter Laviolette didn’t share.”You give me two choices on where to be, our game or their win, I’d take the win,” Laviolette said. ”It’s about winning hockey games right now.”The Predators had the sparkling pregame show with the retractable screen dropping from the ceiling and country star Dierks Bentley singing the U.S. anthem Womens Justin Abdelkader Jersey , and a couple catfish hit the ice before the puck drop to boot. Then they pelted Hellebuyck with 15 of the first 19 shots.Then the Jets scored the game’s first goal for a sixth straight playoff game. Tanev’s wrister beat Rinne’s outstretched right skate at 14:51 of the first.Nashville finished the period with 20 shots, a franchise postseason record for a period, with Hellebuyck continuing his shutout streak started with consecutive shutouts to finish off Minnesota in the first round.”He was awesome,” Jets forward Blake Wheeler said about Hellebuyck. ”They were throwing everything at the net. What we were trying to do in front of him was just get bodies, get sticks, let him see things. You could tell early on if he was seeing the puck he was going to make the stops.”The Predators kept shooting away with Hellebuyck making every save, and the Jets proved very opportunistic. Stastny scored off a rebound of Patrik Laine’s shot at 9:01 of the second on Winnipeg’s ninth shot for a 2-0 lead.Filip Forsberg, Nashville’s postseason scoring leader, hit the post on the power play with 3:31 left. The Jets killed off the penalty, and Scheifele beat Rinne with a long shot with 2:09 left in the second for a 3-0 lead that silenced the sold-out crowd.Fiala at least helped Nashville avoid being shut out with his wrister 1:23 into the third . Not even pulling backup goalie Juuse Saros with more than 2 minutes left helped.”For us right now, there’s a few things we have to clean up, a couple of mistakes cost us, but bounces are going to happen in a hockey game, that’s just the way it is,” Nashville defenseman P.K. Subban said. ”We’ll be ready to go on Sunday. Let’s do that for the rest of the series, we’re going to be a happy bunch at the end of it.NOTES: Nashville defenseman Ryan Ellis went to the locker room after being clipped on the cheek by the skate of Jets defenseman Ben Chiarot early in the third. … Austin Watson Luke Glendening Jersey , who had seven points in the first round for Nashville, did not return after playing 4:09 of the first period. Laviolette said an update on Watson is expected Saturday.UP NEXTGame 2 is Sunday night in Nashville.— ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) Corey Perry has been around the NHL long enough to know how to attack the end of the regular season, and the same is true for the Anaheim Ducks.After some early struggles, Perry and the Ducks look to be finding their groove.Perry and Jakob Silfverberg each scored twice and the Ducks earned points at home for the eighth game in a row, beating the Chicago Blackhawks 6-3 on Sunday.Rickard Rakell scored for the third straight game, Marcus Pettersson had his first career goal, and John Gibson made 37 saves. The Ducks moved into third place in the Pacific Division, a point ahead of Los Angeles. They improved to 6-0-2 in their last eight games at home and 6-1-1 in their last eight overall. Ryan Getzlaf had three assists.”Guys are starting to find their role and play within it,” Perry said. ”It’s a matter of everybody fitting in and rolling four lines out the door. Guys are having fun, and when you’re winning it’s fun.”Nick Schmaltz had two goals, and Tomas Jurco scored for the Blackhawks. They are 1-7-1 in their last eight road games. Anton Forsberg gave up four goals on 21 shots before getting pulled midway through the second period, and Jean-Francois Berube made eight saves in relief.The Ducks needed just 2:23 to take the lead on Rakell’s fifth goal in three games. With Anaheim on the power play after a frustrated Anthony Duclair slashed Cam Fowler in the offensive zone, Rakell skated through three Blackhawks to get to the front of the net and score off Getzlaf’s centering pass.Rakell is on his third goals streak of at least three games this season. He had goals in a career-high six-game run Dec. 21-Jan. 2 and another three straight Feb. 3-6.Perry made it 2-0 at 6:14, whirling around and firing a powerful wrist shot into the top netting from close range.”Those are things that show you are ready to play a hockey game, and we were ready at the start of the game Martin Frk Jersey ,” Perry said. ”You have to be ready to play these games. Every point is crucial for us moving forward.”Pettersson, appearing in his eighth NHL game, put the Ducks up 3-0 at 2:09 of the second with a long wobbly shot through traffic. The 21-year-old Swede was caught by surprise when he was credited with the goal after assuming it struck teammate Derek Grant going in.”Joy. Just complete joy,” Pettersson said, recalling his reaction. ”It was a great game and a fun time, too, to score my first.”It was also the first goal in North America for Pettersson, as he never scored in 44 games for San Diego of the American Hockey League this season, prompting him to joke it is ”easier up here.”Silfverberg made it 4-0 at 6:39.After rallying from a 3-1 deficit with four goals in the third period to beat the Kings on Saturday, the Blackhawks could not mount another comeback. Jurco got Chicago on the board at 14:59 of the second, and Schmaltz trimmed the deficit to 4-2 1:07 into the third before Silfverberg restored breathing room at 5-2 with his second goal with 13 minutes to play.”We played the way we needed to for half the game and probably felt like we could have had a better result if we would have started with that same emphasis,” Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews said.Perry picked up his second with 5:19 remaining for a 6-2 lead.Schmaltz had his third multi-goal game of the season at 17:32.NOTES: Getzlaf, who missed the 6-5 shootout loss to Edmonton on Friday with the flu, has two goals and eight assists in his last five games. … Derek Grant and Andrew Cogliano each had two assists.UP NEXTBlackhawk: Host Colorado on Tuesday night.Ducks: Host Washington on Tuesday night.—
