Nashville Predators Stumble In St. Louis, Three-Game Winning Streak Snapped - Takeaways

After the Nashville Predators had their way in two previous meetings with the St. Louis Blues this season, they were unable to keep that momentum going Saturday at Enterprise Center.

Pavel Buchnevich scored twice to lead the Blues to a 3-2 victory. Brayden Schenn tallied the other goal for St. Louis, who snapped the Preds' three-game winning streak and prevented them from going over the .500 mark for the first time since Oct. 25.

The Blues struck first when Schenn tipped in a Cam Fowler shot at 8:45 on a power play.

Three minutes later, the Preds tied things up 1-1 when Tyson Jost got a tip-in of his own off of a Nic Hague shot.

Pavel Buchnevich put St. Louis back on top 2-1 at 18:14 of the frame, and St. Louis took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

Neither team could light the lamp in the second period, although the Preds thought they had tied the game late in the frame. Filip Forsberg scored, but the goal was waved off after the Blues successfully challenged that Steven Stamkos was offside.

Buchnevich tallied his second of the evening for a 3-1 St. Louis lead at the 4:40 mark of the third.

Fedor Svechkov kept the Predators in the game 3-2 with a beautiful one-timer at 12:03 of the third.

Nashville put on a furious rally late, including two good looks during the final shift. But Blues goalie Joel Hofer covered up Luke Evangelista's last desperate shot as the horn sounded.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Thanks to a new rule requiring the road team coming off the Christmas break to fly on the day of the game, the Predators didn’t get into St. Louis until Saturday.

The team held a morning skate before resting a few hours prior to arriving at Enterprise Center for the game.

The rust and the same-day arrival were apparent early, as the Blues nearly had two goals in the first two minutes of the opening period. Thanks to Juuse Saros slamming the door on Robert Thomas and Logan Mailloux following breakdowns by the Preds’ defense, Nashville only trailed 2-1 after the first 20 minutes.

All in all, not a bad start considering the circumstances. Unfortunately, by the time the Preds found their footing and rallied, it was too late.

It’s no accident that the Preds’ 10-4 stretch coming into Saturday coincided with Juuse Saros’ getting back into form after a slump.

‘Juice’ came into the St. Louis game having won eight of his last 10 decisions and five of his last six.

The Finnish netminder made his presence felt in the first two minutes of Saturday’s game, making two big saves after defensive breakdowns by the Preds. He stopped Robert Thomas, then denied Logan Mailloux shortly after that. He was the biggest reason the Preds trailed 2-1 after the opening frame.

Saros made a nice save on Jordan Kyrou in the second period to keep his team within a goal. Buchnevich's wide-open goal in the third period was unfortunate, but once again, Saros gave his team a chance to win. He stopped 17 of the 20 shots he faced.

The big guns who had been stepping up throughout the past couple of weeks were silenced by the Blues.

Coming into Saturday, Filip Forsberg had a season-high nine-game point streak with 12 points (7-5-12). Ryan O'Reilly had an eight-game point streak with two goals and 11 points. Both of those streaks came to a screeching halt in St. Louis.

Other Preds who were hot lately were shut down Saturday. Luke Evangelista had 15 points (3g-12a) in his last 15 games. Steven Stamkos had 11 points (7g-4a) in his last seven games and 17 points (11g-6a) in his last 14 games. He also scored the last three game-winners, including two empty-netters.

Up next: The Predators will attempt to get going again on their current road trip Monday night in Utah against the Mammoth.