The Nashville Predators and Dallas Stars stayed alive in the NHL playoffs with a pair of hard-fought victories on Monday to send both second round Western Conference series to a game seven.

Kari Lehtonen stopped 35 shots to lead Dallas to a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Blues in game six of their best-of-seven series.

"We took advantage of some early opportunities," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. "We got the start we wanted." 

The Stars' win tied the series at three games each and forces a deciding game seven Wednesday in the Lone Star state to see who will punch their ticket to the NHL semi-finals.

In the other West series in Nashville, Tennessee, Swedish forward Viktor Arvidsson scored just 2:03 into the extra session as the Predators sank the San Jose Sharks 4-3 in a tight series in which the home team has won all six games.

St. Louis is seeking to reach their first NHL semi-final since 2001 while Dallas got to the final four in 2008.

The Blues will be playing their second game seven in this year's playoffs, having eliminated the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks in round one.

Trailing 3-0 after the first period, the Blues scored once in the second period and then cut the lead to 3-2 on a goal by Patrik Berglund off a pass from Jori Lehtera at 8:59 of the third period.St. Louis was done in by their poor start to Monday's game. 

Dallas scored on two of their first three shots on goal, with Mattias Janmark and Vernon Fiddler getting the goals just 20 seconds apart in the first five minutes of the opening period. Fiddler was celebrating his 36th birthday.

Jason Spezza increased the lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal at 16:49 after Troy Brouwer was called for cross-checking. It was the first goal of the series for Canadian Spezza and only the Stars' second power-play goal in 17 opportunities in the series.

The Blues pulled goalie Jake Allen with 1:48 to go for an extra attacker but could not beat Lehtonen for the tying goal.

The Blues outshot the Stars 37-14 overall, including a 14-2 in the third period.

Meanwhile in Nashville, Miika Salomaki sent Arvidsson down the left wing and the Swede backhanded a perfect shot to the top corner past goaltender Martin Jones. It was Arvidsson's first playoff goal.

Jones made 28 stops for San Jose, while Pekka Rinne saved 15 of 18 shots.

Game seven is Thursday night in San Jose.

It was the series' second overtime win for Nashville, which captured game four on Mike Fisher's goal at 11:12 of the third overtime.

Source :AFP