Brock Boeser Hat-Trick Carries Canucks to Game Four Victory

At Bridgestone Arena on Sunday night, the Vancouver Canucks and Nashville Predators continued their first-round series, with the Canucks having the series edge at 2-1. Arturs Silovs would start for the Canucks in Game Four against the Predators, marking their third different starting goalie of the series after All-Star Thatcher Demko was hurt in Game One and backup Casey DeSmith took a hard hit from Predators forward Michael McCarron in Game Three. The Predators outshot the Canucks 30–20 and had 11 takeaways in Game Four, dominating the game's speed and pace for the most of the evening. Nevertheless, despite being down by two goals going into the last minutes of regulation, Brock Boeser's first career playoff hat-trick would propel the Canucks to a 4-3 overtime comeback victory over the Predators to seize control of the series.

Just 2:55 into the first period, Boeser took a feed from J.T. Miller in the left circle and slapped the puck past a leaping Juuse Saros to give the Canucks a 1-0 lead. When the Predators forced a turnover near the center of the ice during a 4-on-4 at 5:34 of the period, Jeremy Lauzon scored a slapshot past Silovs at the top of the offensive zone to tie the game at one. The sole goal of the second period would come at 5:21 when Gustav Nyquist fired a wrist shot past Silovs' left glove and into the net to give the Predators their first lead of the night at 2-1. The Predators put immediate pressure on the Canucks defense to start the third period, scoring after just 12 seconds when Roman Josi raced to the net with the puck and passed it to Filip Forsberg. Forsberg's skate deflected the puck into the net, increasing Nashville's lead to 3-1. 

With 2:47 remaining in regulation, the Canucks pulled Silovs for the extra attacker. Elias Lindholm's pass set up Boeser for his second goal of the game, which he scored by putting the puck past an outstretched Saros. Once again, the Canucks pulled their goaltender, and with 6.2 seconds remaining in regulation, Boeser would complete his hat-trick by putting the puck into the open net on a second try, tying the score at 3-3 and forcing overtime. Only a minute had passed in the overtime period when Conor Garland backhandedly passed the puck behind the net to Lindholm, who slapped the puck into the net to complete the Canucks' thrilling comeback victory and take a commanding 3-1 series lead. The Predators will now try to save their season, while the Canucks will be looking to advance to the second round, as the series returns to Vancouver for Game Five on Tuesday night.