Stars hang on for Game 1 win against Predators

NASHVILLE -- Miro Heiskanen had a goal and an assist for the Dallas Stars in a 3-2 win against the Nashville Predators in Game 1 of the Western Conference First Round at Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday.

"It feels pretty good," the rookie defenseman said. "It was a great atmosphere here. It feels great to play and a great win for us."
Game 2 of the best-of-7 series is Saturday at Nashville.
WATCH: [Stars vs. Predators Game 1 highlights | Complete series coverage]
Ben Bishop made 30 saves for Dallas, which killed Mattias Janmark's holding penalty against Filip Forsberg at 15:08 of the third period while leading by one goal.
Heiskanen initially was credited with the goal that gave the Stars a 2-1 lead at 6:10 of the third period, but it was changed to forward Alexander Radulov on Thursday.
"Yeah, I just tried to shoot it to the net and it went in," Heiskanen said. "I think [Radulov] tipped [the shot]. It was great goals, and I just tried to shoot it to the net."

Mats Zuccarello made it 3-1 at 10:39 when he scored on the rebound of a Ben Lovejoy shot from the right point after Pekka Rinne made a right-pad save.
P.K. Subban scored for the Predators to make it 3-2 at 13:24. He toe-dragged around defenseman Taylor Fedun at the right face-off dot before scoring with a high wrist shot.
"Some of it's unlucky bounces, but obviously we've got to stay out of the box," Subban said. "That's going to be one thing that we're going to want to improve on next game. It just kind of puts a lot of pressure on our penalty-killers to be out there."
Dallas was 1-for-3 on the power play. Nashville went 0-for-4.
Roman Josi gave the Predators a 1-0 lead at 12:12 of the first period. After receiving a cross-ice pass from Ryan Ellis at the left point, Josi skated along the wall before cutting to the middle of the ice and scoring with a backhand from the top of the left hash marks.
"I think you've got to keep pushing," Josi said. "I think we could've played better in the second, had more of a push and keep going for that second goal. They're a good team over there. You can never count them out of it. You've got to play even better in the second and get that next goal."

Subban said, "I felt we had the start that we wanted in getting that first goal. I thought we could've had a couple in the first."
Nashville outshot Dallas 12-9 in the period.
"You have to expect they're going to come out hard, first [Stanley Cup] Playoff game of the year," Stars defenseman John Klingberg said. "They're the favorites and they were into it, and I think we settled in pretty good. We weren't happy with our first period, but we settled pretty good, and then we just took over the game. That's exactly how we wanted to play, and we did a good job."
Heiskanen scored on the power play to tie the game 1-1 at 12:37 of the second period. His wrist shot from the right point went off defenseman Mattias Ekholm's leg.
At 19 years, 266 days, Heiskanen is the youngest defenseman in Stars history to score a goal in the playoffs.
"You know, early, I guess I would say I'm not surprised anymore, but it's truly impressive," Bishop said. "He plays like he's been in the League for 10 years. Just goes about his business quietly and efficiently, and like I said before, this guy's going to be a star in this league for a long time."

They said it

"I mean, we feel good right now. Come tomorrow, we're going to look forward to Saturday. These guys are a great team. I'm sure they're not too worried. Been around for a while, so have to focus on the next one." -- Stars captain Jamie Benn
"I think we played a simple game. I thought we put it behind them. I thought we forechecked very hard, and we were relentless with our game. I thought we were on a good level. I thought we could've probably scored a few more to be honest, and then the second period wasn't close to that." -- Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm on the difference between the first period and the second and third

Need to know

The team that wins Game 1 has a best-of-7 series record of 467-214 (.686). … The Predators are 0-9 in best-of-7 series after losing Game 1.

What's next

Game 2 of Western Conference First Round at Bridgestone Arena on Saturday (6 p.m. ET; CNBC, SN, TVAS2, FS-TN, FS-SW)