Preds enter playoff picture with road win over kings

The last four playoff spots in the NHL’s Western Conference are completely up for grabs, with eight teams having a realistic shot at postseason play.  The Nashville Predators took a big step toward grabbing one of those spots on Monday night as they beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 at the Staples Center.  The victory was Nashville’s eighth in their last eleven games and moved the team into sole possession of 7^th place in the wild West, one point ahead of 8^th place Dallas and three points behind 6^th place Columbus.

The home team struck first as the Kings’ Anze Kopitar lit the lamp at the 14:42 mark of the first period for his 25^th goal of the year assisted by Dustin Brown.  The Predators would even things up with only seconds remaining in the first period as Shea Weber ‘put the biscuit in the basket’ set up by J.P. Dumont and Joel Ward.  The two teams entered the locker room at the end of the first period tied 1-1.

Nashville took the lead early in the second period scored on the power play at 1:24 assisted by J.P. Dumont and David Legwand.  They held this lead for most of the frame until the Kings’ Teddy Purcell tied it back up at the 16:25 mark on a power play goal assisted by Michal Handzus and Alexander Frolov.  The Preds regained their advantage less than two minutes later when Steve Sullivan scored set up by Martin Erat and Ryan Suter to send Nashville into the second intermission up 3-2.

The teams traded goals in the final twenty minutes, with Los Angeles’ Michal Handzus tying things up at 9:53 assisted by Wayne Simmonds and Kyle Calder.  Ryan Jones would score the game winner for Nashville at the 17:42 mark from Dan Hamhuis and Jordin Tootoo to give the Predators a 4-3 victory.  After the game, Nashville’s Steve Sullivan commented that the team’s current road trip was very important for their playoff aspirations:

"We've got two games left on this road trip, and we're trying to set ourselves up so that it doesn't come down to Game 82 and all the pressure to try to get in with one game left.”

"We want to win every night, but our mentality right now is try and scrape points out of every game that we can and be as gritty as we can be. Tonight was one of those games that puts us in a good position. We knew we had to win this game. We wanted to propel ourselves back into the playoffs and make sure we created some separation between us and them."

Despite being only six points out of the final playoff spot, Los Angeles’ play has been spotty of late and they’re on the verge of falling out of playoff contention.  They’re mettle will be severely tested over the next week with road games at Boston on Thursday, Pittsburgh on Friday and Chicago on Sunday.  Nashville has two tough road games remaining on this trip, playing at Anaheim on Wednesday and San Jose on Thursday.  They’ll host the Ducks at home in a return match next Tuesday night.