In Nashville, the Predators picked a good time to get back on the winning side of the ledger on Thursday night.
With the Los Angeles Kings getting a 2-1 win over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday, the Preds needed two points to stay clear of the Kings for the first wild card in the Western Conference.
“We don’t want to put ourselves in that spot where we’ve got almost 40 shots against after two periods, [Saros] is playing his [bottom] off and the penalty kill was great,” Forsberg said. “But we did. Guys showed up and stepped up in key moments of the game. Obviously, the third period was good. It was really good. I think we took it to them a little bit there.”
The Predators improved to 44-28-4 snapping a three-game skid.
Nashville grabbed a 1-0 lead on a strike by Roman Josi with 31 seconds gone in the game.
“We’re moving straight ahead,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “I don’t know if we loved [our game]. I think we have to be a little realistic when you look through a stretch of 20-plus games here where I don’t know if we’ve had a night like this in 20. I think for us, we have to regroup a little bit.
St Louis replied with a marker from Brandon Saad tied at 7:27 to tie the game, 1-1, scoring off a one-timer from the slot.
Forsberg hit for his first of the night at 1:13 of the middle frame for a 2-1 lead to the Preds off a power play goal.
Nashville pushed the lead to 3-1 when Anthony Beauvillier scored at 19:29, scoring off another power play.
“Just got to put those in the net,” Beauvillier said. “Those are nice. It was great. I thought obviously a great play there by [Luke Evangelista] and [Nyquist] in front of the net. I just had to tap it home.”
The Blues dropped to 40-32-4, they are now seven points back of the Kings for the second wild card.
“I thought we were the better team for most of the night,” the Blues’ Robert Thomas said. “Frustrating result, obviously. I think we did a lot of really good things and just couldn’t find a way to bury on our chances.”
The Predators ballooned the lead to 4-1 at 4:09 of the third period with a marker form Michael McCarron, scoring after a turnover by the Blues.
St Louis rallied to get back to within one at 4-3.
Jake Neighbours scored off a breakaway at t 6:21 to close the gap to 4-2.
Jordan Kyrou trimmed the deficit to 4-3 on yet another power play goal at 17:45.
“Yeah, [Saros is] one of the best goalies in the League,” St Louis’ Justin Faulk said. “He’s been that way for a while. It’s a tough goalie to crack. It’s tough. Some nights you’ve got to try and lock it down and know in order to win a game, you might have to be a low-scoring game because you know you’re going against a good goalie and a team that tries to play pretty tight defensively, not open it up too much.
“He played well tonight. We had 45, almost 50 shots or something. We threw a lot at him, that’s for sure.”
Forsberg collected his double when he hit an empty net at 18:16 for a 5-3 lead to the Preds.
Mark Jankowski added a second empty-net marker, this one on a shorthanded strike at 189:23 for the 6-3 final count on the scoreboard. 
Jordan Binnington made 25 saves in the loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.