David Legwand also scored twice, Pekka Rinne made 29 saves and Ward had 3 points for the Predators, who still trail by 3-2 in the best-of-seven series but will return home for Game 6 on Monday night.
Ryan Kesler scored his second goal of the game with 3 minutes 46 seconds left. Kesler has five goals in three games, but it was not enough to put the Canucks into the conference finals.
Coming off a 2-point effort in a Game 4 loss, Ward one-timed a cross-ice pass from Mike Fisher past the blocker of Roberto Luongo to put Nashville ahead, 3-2, at 1:14 of the third. He pounced on a turnover inside the left circle 4:31 later and snapped a shot past Luongo’s glove to make it a two-goal lead.
Ward has 4 goals and 6 points in the last three games, and has already set franchise records with 7 goals and 12 points in the playoffs.
Raffi Torres also scored, and Luongo made 19 saves for the Canucks, who blew a 3-0 series lead to Chicago in the first round before winning Game 7 in overtime.
They won Games 3 and 4 in Nashville, but did not want to go back as they hoped to advance to the conference finals for the first time since 1994, when they lost to the Rangers in seven games. Game 7, if necessary, would be in Vancouver on Wednesday.
The Canucks also lost forward Mikael Samuelsson to an undisclosed lower-body injury in the first period.
The Canucks started quickly, forcing Rinne to make a couple of good early saves, and drawing a penalty. But Samuelsson coughed up the puck, and Ward sent Legwand in alone. Legwand snapped a shot under Luongo’s blocker just 3:42 in.
A little more than two minutes later, Vancouver’s Jannik Hansen stole the puck from defenseman Jonathan Blum and made a cross-crease pass to a wide-open Torres. Torres quickly snapped a shot past a diving Rinne.
Kesler gave Vancouver the lead on a two-on-one rush with 4:54 left in the first period. He fought off Shea Weber and lifted the puck past Rinne.
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