Nashville Predators Fall to St. Louis Blues, 4-1, for Second Time in 5 Days

The Nashville Predators (26-36-8, 60 points) fell 4-1 to the St. Louis Blues (37-28-7, 81 points) Saturday at Enterprise Center.

It is the second of three meetings between the Central Division rivals in a span of 10 days. St. Louis also won the previous matchup, 4-1, March 18 at Bridgestone Arena, and the teams will meet in Nashville for a final time this season on Thursday.

Filip Forsberg scored the lone goal for Nashville, and Justus Annunen made 14 saves in the loss. Robert Thomas paced the Blues with three points (all assists), and Jordan Binnington made 27 saves in the win to keep St. Louis in possession of the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.

There were 61 total penalty minutes assessed in the game, which should make for a feisty rematch Thursday at Bridgestone Arena.

Forsberg-O'Reilly-Evangelista
Bunting-Stamkos-Marchessault
Smith-Svechkov-Bellows
L'Heureux-McCarron-Sissons

Skjei-Blankenburg
 Del Gaizo-Barron
 Englund-Stastney

 Annunen
Saros 

Extra: Vrana, Oesterle
IR: Lauzon, Josi, Wilsby

The Blues struck first in this one as Robert Thomas entered the zone and made a quick drop pass to Jordan Kyrou, whose shot got past Annunen off the near post and in to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead at the 12:13 mark of the first period.

The goal extended Kyrou's point streak to six games; he has 11 points (6 goals, 5 assists) in that span. He has now recorded three consecutive 30-goal seasons.

A roughing penalty from Michael Bunting gave the Blues their first power play opportunity, and they took advantage. A tic-tac-toe play finished with Thomas finding Alexandre Texier on the doorstep to tap it in and extend the Blues' lead to 2-0.

The first period ended with a scuffle that ensued behind the Blues' net when Jonathan Marchessault laid a hit on Philip Broberg. Broberg and Alexei Toropchenko were each assessed minor penalties, as was Marchessault, to give the Predators a 5-on-4 advantage with two seconds remaining in the period.

The Predators started the second period with 1:58 remaining on the man advantage and capitalized quickly with a beauty of a goal from Filip Forsberg. Forsberg skated around Ryan Suter inside the right circle and snapped a shot through Suter's legs that went inside the post and past Binnington to cut the Blues' lead to 2-1.

Nashville held the Blues to just three shots in the second period and outshot them 16-12 through 40 minutes of play.

An offensive zone face-off for Nashville turned into a 3-on-2 going the other way, leading to a quick and easy goal for Justin Faulk to allow St. Louis to regain the two-goal lead at the 10:30 mark of the third period.

Tensions came to a boil late in the period when Michael McCarron and Nathan Walker were each given 10-minute game misconducts. Then seconds later, Nick Blankenburg missed a hit on Thomas, went flying, and was given several cross-checks to the back by Zack Bolduc. 

Bolduc was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct, while Blankenburg was given a two-minute tripping penalty.

A 4-on-4 became a 4-on-3 power play for St. Louis when Ryan O'Reilly was whistled for tripping against Broberg. The Predators killed the penalty and then had a three-minute, 5-on-4 power play but failed to convert.

With Annunen pulled for the extra attacker, Brayden Schenn scored into the empty net for the 4-1 final.