Jets 1 - 3 Predators
Final
  for this game

Predators drop Jets

Mar 25, 2012 - 3:38 AM Nashville, TN (Sports Network) - Matt Halischuk and Gabriel Bourque tallied, and the Nashville Predators defeated the Winnipeg Jets, 3-1, on Saturday.

Shea Weber added an empty-netter for Nashville, which had lost four of its last five games coming in. Pekka Rinne stopped 24-of-25 shots and earned his 40th victory of the season.

With the win, the Predators broke a fifth-place tie and moved two points ahead of the idle Blackhawks. Nashville is still a point behind Detroit for the fourth seed in the Western Conference, which downed Carolina 5-4 earlier on Saturday.

"It's nice to get two points until we go on a tough four-game stretch," Predators defenseman Kevin Klein said.

The Predators will begin the stretch in Chicago on Sunday. They will then travel to St. Louis and Detroit before coming home to play the Blackhawks.

Tim Stapleton had the lone goal for Winnipeg, which has lost three of its last four games. Ondrej Pavelec had 25 saves in defeat.

"You look at the game, we got shots, but very few quality shots, very few scoring chances," Winnipeg head coach Claude Noel said. "It was very little penetration inside the dots. Very few second and third opportunities and I thought they did a good job of keeping us to the outside."

The loss drops the Jets six points behind Buffalo, which defeated Minnesota 3-1, for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

After a scoreless first period, the Predators netted a pair of tallies on just five shots in the second stanza.

From the neutral zone, Alexander Radulov hit a streaking Halischuk up the right wing and his laser from the top of the right circle got past Pavelec at the 2:56 mark.

After Pavelec kicked aside Nick Spaling's wrister from the high slot, Bourque backhanded home the rebound midway through the frame.

Stapleton made it a one-goal game with 7:07 remaining in the third as he one- timed home a behind-the-net pass from Spencer Machacek.

But Rinne was solid down the stretch, and Weber's empty-netter on the power play sealed the win with 10 seconds left.

Game Notes

The Predators are 24-9-5 as the host this year...Nashville was 1-of-4 on the power play while the Jets were 0-for-1...Winnipeg comes home to take on Ottawa on Monday.






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