NHL: Canucks knock off Predators

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - Roberto Luongo stopped 20 shots and made Chris Higgins' second-period goal stand up in the Vancouver Canucks' 1-0 win over the Nashville Predators in the opener of the Western Conference semifinals on Thursday night.

It was Luongo's second shutout of these playoffs and the third of his NHL postseason career. He made nine saves in the third period, including a short-handed breakaway by Mike Fisher 5:20 in, for the Canucks, who will host Game 2 on Saturday.

Pekka Rinne had several spectacular stops among his 29 saves to keep the Predators in the game despite his club being outshot 30-20 and outplayed for long stretches.

The Presidents' Trophy-winning Canucks got right back into action just two days after beating archrival Chicago in overtime of Game 7 of a series in which Vancouver had held a 3-0 lead.

But it was the fifth-seeded Predators who were a bit road-weary after arriving in Vancouver on Wednesday night. Nashville, off since eliminating Anaheim in Game 6 on Sunday, came out flat in its first second-round game in team history.

Vancouver outshot Nashville 16-5 in the opening period, but couldn't beat Rinne, who made the best of a handful of great saves with his glove.

Higgins finally scored on the Canucks' 24th shot, taken with 7:46 left in the second after a turnover at the Nashville blue line led to a 3-on-1 down low. But play continued even after the goal was scored.

Higgins, who also opened the scoring in the first round, took a cross-ice feed from Maxim Lapierre in the slot and fired a shot as Rinne stacked the pads while sliding across. The puck went off Rinne, and up and under the crossbar. It came back out of the net so quickly, the referee signaled no goal as Higgins began to celebrate.

A quick video review confirmed that the puck struck something inside the net before popping out. That was all the offense Luongo needed. He protected the slim lead the rest of the way and made good saves to deny Sergei Kostitsyn and Jordin Tootoo from the slot later in the period.

Nashville outshot Vancouver 9-4 in the third period, but Luongo stayed with Fisher on a glove side shot on the breakaway, controlled a hard shot from defenseman Shea Weber during a power play, and got a break when Weber missed an empty net on a backdoor pass on the same advantage with four minutes left.

Luongo appears to be back on his game after being pulled from Games 4 and 5 against Chicago and benched to start Game 6. He recovered and made 31 saves to win Game 7 on Tuesday.