NASHVILLE — Rick Tocchet told Pius Suter to keep shooting.
The forward took his coach's words to heart, and it paid off.
Suter scored with 1:39 left, and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6. Of Suter's five shots in the game, three were in the third period.
"If you keep going to those spots, it'll happen," Tocchet said, "and it happened for Suits, and big game-winning goal for us."
Nashville, trying to take the best-of-seven series the distance and set up a decisive meeting Sunday in Canada, had a final chance to force overtime with a power play with 33.9 seconds left after Elias Lindholm was called for cross-checking Gustav Nyquist. Even with goalie Juuse Saros pulled for an extra attacker, the Predators couldn't beat rookie Arturs Silovs in the net before time expired.
The final four games in this series were decided by one goal. First-year Nashville coach Andrew Brunette, who played for six NHL franchises during his on-ice career, said this might have been the tightest series he can remember being in. Replaying the final 33 seconds, Brunette said he could see opportunities his team missed.
"You're going to get in one of these games, and hockey's cruel sometimes," said Brunette, a finalist for the Jack Adams Award presented to the league's coach of the year.
Silovs made 28 saves to become the 14th rookie goalie in NHL history to finish off a series with a shutout and just the fifth in 30 years. He joined Akira Schmid (2023), Matt Murray (2017), Carey Price (2008) and Ilya Bryzgalov (2006) in that select group. Murray's feat came while playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins against Nashville in the decisive Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.
"He stepped in, and what a crazy scenario he's been thrown into," Canucks forward J.T. Miller said about Silovs. "He made the saves when he needed to in such a big and crazy environment. We're happy for him."
Vancouver will next play the Edmonton Oilers, who finished second behind the Canucks in the Pacific Division and lost once to the Los Angeles Kings in the first round.
Against the Predators, who surged at midseason to secure the top wild card in the Western Conference, the Canucks continued the streak started in Game 2 of the road team winning each of the final five games.
The Predators have lost six straight playoff games on home ice, taking some of the luster off the franchise's reputation as Smashville. They haven't won a postseason series since 2018, when they won the Presidents' Trophy as the top team in the regular season after their unexpected run to the Stanley Cup Final a year earlier.
Suter scored only his second goal of the series from in front off a pass from Brock Boeser, beating Saros, who also made 28 saves in a game that seemed headed for overtime.
"I was trying to take away a little bit of the pass option, and I quite couldn't reach with my stick," Saros said. "And then after that, you just try to go and reach with your pad, but, you know, small margin there."
Vancouver had its most shots in a game this series after being held to a combined 92 shots through the first five games. That was the second-fewest in a playoff series through five games since 1960, trailing only the Washington Capitals (90) in the 1998 Eastern Conference semifinals.
Silovs got into the mix when Thatcher Demko, a finalist for the Vezina Trophy given to the league's top goalie, was declared week to week with an injury after winning Game 1. Casey DeSmith started the next two games before his own injury, and then Silovs made his postseason debut, winning Game 4 for a 3-1 lead.
"I just embraced the challenge," Silovs said. "I knew I had already had played on big stages before. I was already familiar with what would happen, what kind of games they were going to be. It was a great opportunity for me to play for the big club and seize the opportunity."