In Boston, Cole Smith’s empty-net goal at 18:41 of the third period gave the Nashville Predators a 2-0 lead over the Bruins on Tuesday night.
It ended up the game-winner when Boston’s David Pastrnak scored with two seconds left on the clock for a 2-1 final.
Juuse Saros made 35 saves in the win.
“We didn’t turn pucks over and tried not to give them any easy offense, because they’re a deadly team,” Nashville coach John Hynes said. “When we were called upon to defend, we defended the net front very well. I thought we defended the backside of the net very well. We had commitment to shot-blocking, and that’s what you need.”
Nashville moved to within three points of the Winnipeg Jets for the second wild card in the Western Conference.
The Bruins lost a chance to clinch the President’s Trophy after the Carolina Hurricanes were shut out by the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.
“If we play the way that we have all year, then business will take care of [itself],” Boston forward Brad Marchand said. “It’s in our hands. Obviously it would have been nice to clinch that tonight, but we didn’t.”
The Bruins dropped to 57-12-5.
“We didn’t play to our standards and to our process and our details,” Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron said. “When you do that, you force plays and you don’t really respect the way you want to play the game and kind of get away from how you’re successful.”
The penalty killers for both clubs were perfect in five chances each.
“You want to play 5-on-5, kind of get your feet under you,” Glass said. “But at the same time, going through all that stuff, you have to be dialed in and focus [on] whatever comes your way. A little adversity to start the game, but we had our power plays, they had their power plays and couldn’t take advantage, but our [penalty kill] did a good job.”
The game was scoreless late in the middle frame when Cody Glass scored to give the Preds a 1-0 lead.
“They cleared a lot of pucks after we took shots to the net,” Boston coach Jim Montgomery said. “When you’re on top of your power play, you’re converging at the net, you’re coming up with those pucks.”
Linus Ullmark made 21 saves in the Boston loss.
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