Blues jump into third place with 4-1 win over Nashville

The NHL post season is a tantalizing prey for the Nashville Predators but they cannot feast yet.

On Sunday, they had an opportunity to lock down a seed but the St Louis Blues hung a

Joel Edmundson had a goal in Blues win over Nashville – file photo by Lewis Bleiman

4-1 loss on the Preds.

“I can’t worry about other teams,” Preds head coach Peter Laviolette said. “We’ve got a big game coming up [Tuesday against the New York Islanders]. We’ll worry about it ourselves.”

The Predators can clinch if the Los Angeles Kings lose Sunday in LA.

“We don’t care how it happens,” the Predators’ Mike Fisher said. “No one will remember that two days from now as long as you’re in. That’s the main focus, playing hard going into the playoffs but obviously clinching is first.”

Jake Allen made 35 saves to get the win for St Louis.

“It was a big game; this has been on our schedule for a while,” Allen said. “We knew it was going to come down to between us and Nashville there for the race in the standings. We were ready, we played well. We got out of that first 10 crazy minutes there with not much harm done and that carried some momentum for us.”

Alexander Steen and David Perron  scored in the middle frame for the Blues.

“Both our goalies have been playing so well. It’s given us a lot of confidence. It’s a sense of calm, I think defensively we’re playing extremely smart,” Steen said.

Vladimir Tarasenko and Joel Edmundson bookended the Blues effort in the first and third.

Ryan Johansen had the lone strike for the Predators in the loss.

“This team rises to the occasion this year. We’ve done it in big games, games that have mattered. I wasn’t surprised by the effort. I thought emotionally we were really invested. We did a really good job of getting into the game. These afternoon games are always a little bit challenging, but it didn’t really faze us,” St Louis’ Alex Pietrangelo said after the win.

WATCH: All Predators vs. Blues highlights

Juuse Saros made 21 saves in taking the loss.

For the Predators it was their fifth game in seven days.

“We had an early game yesterday so we got here early, but the schedule has been tough. It’s probably tough for everyone so that can’t be an excuse,” Saros said.