Pontus Aberg scored his first career playoff goal with 8:59 to play, and the Nashville Predators moved to the brink of their first Stanley Cup Final with a 3-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals Saturday night.

Aberg scored on a rebound of Filip Forsberg's shot for the Predators, who took a 3-2 series lead despite the injury absence of top scorer Ryan Johansen and captain Mike Fisher.

Pekka Rinne made 32 saves in the Finnish goalie's latest dominant playoff performance in Anaheim, where the Predators have won five of their last seven playoff games over two seasons.

Chris Wagner scored for the Ducks, who lost starting goalie John Gibson to injury during the first intermission.

Game 6 is Monday night in Nashville.

Jonathan Bernier took over and stopped 16 shots in his first appearance in nearly two weeks for the Ducks, who already were without 30-goal scorers Rickard Rakell and Patrick Eaves before losing Gibson to a lower-body injury.

Anaheim was knocked out of the playoffs last year by Nashville, and the Ducks are facing their second elimination game of the postseason after winning Game 7 against Edmonton in the second round.

The Predators still haven't lost back-to-back games at any point in what's looking like a charmed playoff run for an 18-season-old franchise that's finally one game from playing for the Stanley Cup.

After Colin Wilson scored the tying power-play goal late in the second period for the Predators, Aberg went flying when he stretched out to guide home Forsberg's rebound for the tiebreaker.

The 23-year-old Swede has only one goal in his 15 games of regular-season NHL experience, but Nashville's injuries thrust him into a key role alongside Forsberg on its top line.

Austin Watson added an empty-net goal in the final minute, emphatically ending Anaheim's streak of seven consecutive Game 5 victories at home since 2011. The last team to beat the Ducks in a Game 5 at Honda Center also was Nashville.

Aberg and several other role players all came up big in the Predators' first game of the season without Johansen, their top-line center and leading postseason scorer. Johansen had emergency surgery shortly after Game 4 and was ruled out for the rest of the playoffs.

Fisher missed his first game of his scoreless postseason with an undisclosed injury after taking a hit to the head in Game 4.

The Ducks also were hurting without Rakell, a surprise omission due to a lower-body injury, and Eaves, who missed his ninth straight game. The duo combined for 65 regular-season goals.

The Ducks won Game 4 against Nashville in overtime and controlled long stretches of play in Game 5, but their depleted forwards repeatedly struggled to finish strong sequences against Rinne, who has beaten Anaheim in two previous playoff series.

When Gibson failed to return for the second period, Bernier was abruptly sent into the fourth playoff game of his NHL career, and he immediately made a handful of strong stops. Wagner then put the Ducks ahead by cleaning up a rebound of a shot by dynamic young defenseman Brandon Montour.

Nashville got a power play shortly before the second intermission when Josh Manson was whistled for cross-checking Forsberg, who got away with an unpenalized stick to Manson's mouth moments earlier. Wilson made the Ducks pay, slipping a difficult backhand around Bernier for his second goal of the playoffs and the 13th of his Predators postseason career, tying four other Preds for the franchise lead.

NOTES: C Frederick Gaudreau made his Stanley Cup playoff debut for Nashville, and veteran C Vern Fiddler returned from a two-game absence. F Miikka Salomaki also returned from five games off. ... F Nic Kerdiles made his third appearance of the postseason for Anaheim in Rakell's absence. Coach Randy Carlyle hadn't indicated before pregame warmups that Rakell might miss a game. ... Anaheim's Ryan Kesler, Andrew Cogliano and Antoine Vermette have all scored just one goal apiece over the Ducks' 16 playoff games.

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EDMONTON, Alberta - Jakob Silfverberg scored twice to lead the Anaheim Ducks to a 6-3 victory over Edmonton on Sunday night, cutting the Oilers' series lead to 2-1,

Ryan Getzlaf had a goal and an assist, and Rickard Rakell, Chris Wagner and Ryan Kesler also scored for Anaheim, which lost the first two games at home. John Gibson stopped 24 shots.

Connor McDavid scored his first of the series for Edmonton. Patrick Maroon and Anton Slepychev also scored and Kris Russell had two assists. Cam Talbot finished with 22 saves.

Wagner scored the tie-breaking goal midway through the second period, firing a shot that deflected off Talbot's arm and in.

Silfverberg knocked in a feed from Josh Manson at 4:56 of the third to make it 5-3. The Oilers challenged the play for offside, but the goal stood after a video review. Kesler swept in a rebound with 9 1/2 minutes left to cap the scoring.

Game 4 is Wednesday night.

Talbot was stellar in Game 2 with 39 saves, but the Ducks got to him early scoring on two of their first three shots of the game.

Rakell got a long pass from Getzlaf behind the Edmonton defense and scored on a breakaway 25 seconds in for the fastest playoff goal to start a game in franchise history.

Silfverberg got his stick on a loose puck to make it 2-0 at 5:33 when Oilers defenseman Adam Larsson failed to clear it away from Talbot.

Maroon was in the penalty box for knocking down Gibson when Getzlaf beat Talbot with a wrist shot from the hashmarks with 8:09 remaining in the first. Getzlaf had corralled Darnell Nurse's clearing attempt around the boards to gain possession of the puck.

Russell finally gave the Rogers Place crowd something to cheer about when his shot from the point deflected off Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Maroon and past Gibson with 40 seconds left in the opening period.

The Oilers pulled within a goal at 1:28 of the second when David Desharnais' centering pass from beside the net deflected off Slepychev's skate and in.

McDavid tied it at 8:40 as he spun and cut back to lose defender Sami Vatanen and rifled a shot over Gibson's left elbow.

NOTES: The U.S. national anthem got a unique rendition before the game when the microphone didn't work Canadian country singer Brett Kissel. Decked out in an Oilers jersey and guitar, Kissel attempted twice to sing the anthem before throwing his hands in the air and encouraging the crowd to sing with him. The microphone resumed working in time for Robert Clark to perform the Canadian anthem. ... Vatanen was in Anaheim's lineup for the first time in the playoffs. He sat out the first six games with a knee injury . . . Ducks D Kevin Bieksa sat out a second straight game with a lower-body injury.

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