OTTAWA, Ontario -- From start to finish, the Nashville Predators were the better team and simply outworked the Ottawa Senators. Anibal Sanchez Jersey .Ryan Ellis scored the tiebreaking goal late in the first period, Pekka Rinne stopped 30 shots and the Predators beat the Senators 5-1 Thursday night.Mike Ribeiro had a goal and assist, and Colton Sissons, Pontus Aberg and James Neal also scored to help the Predators sweep the two-game series series against the Senators.We played great, Predators captain Mike Fisher said. Weve struggled on the road and this was a really good solid game for us. We needed that one. We did a lot of good things.Before the game, Fisher was honored by the Senators for reaching the 1,000th game milestone last season. Fisher played 675 games with Ottawa before being traded to Nashville.For the organization to do something like that was pretty special, Fisher said. Theres so many great memories here, its like home.Derrick Brassard scored for Ottawa, and Mike Condon finished with 35 saves in his third start. The Senators havent scored more than two goals in their last 11 games.This is the second time weve been terrible against Nashville, Senators coach Guy Boucher said. I dont know if were allergic to them or something.Ellis beat Condon on the far side with about 4 1/2 minutes left in the opening period to put the Predators up 2-1.Right off the bat our turnovers killed us in the first period, Boucher said. Were letting the opponent wear us down in the first period and then you play catch up hockey because of that.I know guys are trying to get a bit more offense, but thats not the right way, thats definitely not the right way.Nashville held the edge in play in the second and was rewarded as Aberg scored his first NHL goal, beating Condon through the legs with under three minutes remaining.The Senators were unable to create any real chances in the third despite two power plays.The Predators put the game out of reach as Neal, with his seventh goal in six games, and Ribeiro, taking a long pass from P.K. Subban, made it 5-1 sending the 15,480 fans at Canadian Tire Centre to the exits.Ottawa got off to a poor start, giving up the first goal for the sixth straight game.Its always tough to play from behind, Senators captain Erik Karlsson said. Weve been doing it a lot lately. ... Weve got to come back and work on the things that we need to work on and realize we need a lot more, not a little bit more for Saturdays game.The Predators opened the scoring at 2:14 as Sissons tipped Austin Watsons shot after some poor defensive coverage from Karlsson and Marc Methot.Brassard scored a power-play goal to tie the game at 8:36 of the first. It was just Brassards second goal of the season and marked the Senators first power-play goal in six games.Its something Ive been working on every day, Brassard said of his shot. I was working on it this morning. Now its behind me and I have to focus on the next game and try and play well.Ottawas Bobby Ryan left the game with an upper body injury and did not return for the second period.Game notes Prior to the game, the Senators honored Predators captain Mike Fisher for reaching the 1,000th game milestone last season. Fisher played 675 games with the Senators. ... Ottawa LW Mike Hoffman is out day-to-day and was replaced by Max McCormick. ... A late change had Andrew Hammond backing Condon up in place of Craig Anderson. ... D Fredrik Claesson was a healthy scratch for Ottawa. ... Nashville C Cody Bass and D Matt Carle were healthy scratches.UP NEXTPredators: At St. Louis on Saturday night.Senators: Host Florida on Saturday night. Lance Parrish Jersey . -- Devin Hester is done returning kicks in Chicago. Jordan Zimmermann Jersey . The 43-year-old closer, in his 19th and final big league season, has said hed like to play the outfield. Yankees manager Joe Girardi says hes thinking about allowing Rivera to do it this weekend, when the Yankees finish their season with a three-game series at the Houston Astros. http://www.baseballtigersgear.com/ . Traditional contenders Brazil, Greece and Turkey drew the other three spots to complete the 24-team field for this summers tournament in Spain, basketball governing body FIBA announced Saturday at its meeting in Barcelona. Over the years, Pat Riley has coined a term, Forever Men. He uses it to describe the players who have been through the battles with him. Superstars like Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning and Dwyane Wade.Once you live through all that together, how can you ever grow apart?My dad and I, long-term die-hard Miami sports fans, know the feeling.We didnt coach Dwyane Wade, but we absolutely have gone through a lifetime of battles with him.Even if now, weirdly, Wade doesnt play for the Heat anymore.Like many of you, I became a sports fan because of my dad. Unlike many of you, my dad is borderline irrational when it comes to sports. There was always a game on TV when I was growing up. There was also a lot of yelling at the television, both joyful and filled with angst. Occasionally, there was cursing. Oh hell, who am I trying to fool? There was a lot of cursing.Having been born in Cuba, my dad, Jorge, wasnt a huge basketball fan at first. Its just not what my people did. Cuba is a baseball and boxing country.Although, if youre a sports fan, its hard to turn away from greatness. As a kid in the 80s, there was no Miami Heat. So I started watching hoops and fell in love with the Lakers versus the Celtics. My dad took an interest because you could clearly see how exceptional the level of play was. Slowly, he started watching more and more games with me. The NBA crept in.Then the Heat were born in 1988. We had our own team to root for, short shorts and all. But they didnt make it easy for a couple of Sedanos who mostly rooted for transcendent sports moments. The team lost the first 17 games of its expansion season. So much cursing.There were the young teams of Rony Seikaly, Steve Smith and Glen Rice, when they did make the playoffs but couldnt get out of the first round (1991-1994). Then the Alonzo Mourning, Tim Hardaway and Jamal Mashburn?teams were better but not mind-blowing, losing to the Knicks three times and to the Bulls once.It took us years to get over that stupid f---ing?Allan Houston shot. My father literally called it, the stupid f---ing Allan Houston shot for several years.The 2003 draft came with a special kind of hope. Somehow, Wade fell to us, and here was a player who created the moments that delighted my father. We had a chance to have the kind of basketball we loved in the city we adored.As I returned home from covering the 2003 World Series between the Marlins and Yankees in New York, my father suffered a massive stroke. He was lucky to survive, though he was left with some battle scars that ran deep.From that day forward, Dad lost his ability to speak more than a few words, and was partially paralyzed on his right side. In essence, he has been trapped in his own body for the past 13 years.Challenge accepted. There have been many phases of his struggle. Eventually, after several years of therapy, he regained some mobility of his right limbs. Luckily, his ability to comprehend, read and emote were all intact, which allowed him to train his brain by reading the newspaper daily in both English and Spanish. Eventually, a few words would leak out. He can call my mom Nana, which is close enough to Nancy.Now, his days are mostly moving from bed, to a wheelchair, to the living room where he reads and watches TV.Sports always starred in our relationship. But since the stroke, they mattered more than ever, quickly becoming a rare and powerful escape from a cold reality. In a weird way, this situation and sports made us way closer than we ever had been.Most of our communication, since the stroke is me asking him questions and him nodding yes or no. Occasionally, hell point to words in a newspaper or write something with his left hand. There are lots of charades. For example, when he wants to go to bed, he looks at my mom, and points toward the room.But he can still watch sports.Right on cue, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat became the center of that universe.Three years after my dads stroke, the Heat were down 2-0 in the 2006 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks. By then I had a job on Heat radio broadcasts, doing pregame and postgame interviews, for which I sat behind the bench. During the games, Id look serious, and take notes to use during the broadcast -- I had this fancy leather folder I had bought to keep my notes in -- but half my mind would imagine my parents at home, and whatever my dad would be doing in reaction to the game.Technically, he doesnt curse anymore -- because he cant enunciate the words. Although, I know my father. His face is still extremely expressive. From his facial expressions and I always know the tone and volume of the curses in his head.After each of the first two games, I called my folks the following morning to chat with Mom and to see how the old man was reacting to the games. Needless to say, Dad was not happy. Mom told me, he was so upset he shut the game off and told her he wanted to go to bed. Basically, my dad was pulling the elderly version of Im taking my ball and going home.In Game 3, their first home game of the series, the Heat found themselves down and practically out thanks to a Jason Terry bucket that gave the Mavericks an 89-76 lead with 6:34 to go. My phone was alive with one text after another from friends upset that the series was over and the team had no heart. It was an avalanche of annoyance and I took out my nervous energy with my sweaty hands, somehow mangling that fancy, and unfortunately rather expensive, leather folder so severely I had to throw it away. Ian Kinsler Jersey. But thanks to Dwyane Wade, that folder didnt die in vain. You know how the rest of the story went. Wade played the fourth quarter with five fouls, scored 15 of his 42 points and famously said postgame, I was just looking up at the score and thinking, No, I aint going out like this. Im not going out 3-0. Immediately after the clock hit zeros, I called my parents. My mom picked up and I asked if she saw the end of the game. She said she hadnt, that my dad told her to turn it off when they called timeout with six and a half minutes to go.I started laughing and said to her, Are you kidding? They