Canucks make first final in 17 years

Nashville: The Vancouver Canucks took an early 2-0 lead and held on to beat the Nashville Predators 2-1 on Monday and advance to the NHL's Western Conference final.

Mason Raymond and Daniel Sedin netted first-period goals and Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo was in fine form as the Canucks clinched the best-of-seven series 4-2 to reach first conference final in 17 years.

The victory enabled Vancouver to avoid a second wiiner-takes-all final game.

The Canucks failed three times to finish off their first-round series against the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks after taking a 3-0 lead, before prevailing in the decider.

On Monday, Luongo finished with 23 saves in what was a hard-fought defensive series throughout with five of the six games being decided by one-goal.

Tough series

"They're all tough series', it's never going to be easy," Luongo said. "When things are looking down that's when you have to roll up the sleeves and go to work."

David Legwand scored Nashville's goal in the second period, for his third score in two games, but the Predators came up short in what was their first trip to the conference semi-finals.

Nashville outshot Vancouver 18-9 through two periods, but Vancouver went into full clamp-down mode in the third and held Nashville to just six shots over the final 20 minutes.

Ryan Kesler was involved in both Canucks goals to show how vital he is to the Vancouver offence.

"I kept doing the right things and finally it started to work for me," Kesler said.

RESULTS

(Vancouver win the best-of-seven series by 4-2)

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