• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Blues-Predators Preview

Nov 26, 2009 - 5:24 PM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

St. Louis (9-9-4) at Nashville (14-8-1), 8:00 p.m. EDT

Pekka Rinne has matched a record by being in net every game during the Nashville Predators' seven-game win streak.

He can set the new mark Friday night as the Predators try to tie their franchise record of eight straight wins when they begin a stretch of three home games in four days with a matchup against the St. Louis Blues.

Rinne has posted a 1.80 goals-against average during the run for Nashville (14-8-1), which won eight straight Oct. 5-25, 2005. He's tied the franchise record for consecutive victories by a goalie, accomplished by Tomas Vokoun in 2003-04 and 2005-06.

The Predators got 19 saves from him Wednesday night in a 4-3 overtime victory at Colorado. Nashville blew a two-goal lead after one period before David Legwand scored in the extra session.

J.P. Dumont and defenseman Shea Weber each scored on the power play as Nashville improved to 12-0-0 when scoring with the man advantage.

"They had the momentum going at that point they scored three goals in a row, and they had some other chances," Rinne said. "Then we had that big power play. (Weber's) was a huge goal for us. We had some good chances and eventually Leggy scored a big goal for us."

Legwand has four goals and four assists during the win streak, and has been clutch in three of the last five wins. He scored the winner in a 4-3 victory over San Jose on Nov. 17 and had the winning shootout goal last Saturday against Columbus.

The center felt he got lucky Wednesday.

"I just threw it toward the net," Legwand said. "We got the puck off to the side of the net and we kept the pressure on them."

The Predators' win streak began with a 3-1 victory at St. Louis (9-9-4) on Nov. 12. Rinne made 21 saves and Jordin Tootoo scored the go-ahead goal with 3:43 remaining.

The Blues won 4-3 in a shootout at Dallas on Wednesday for their third victory in four games. T.J. Oshie and David Backes each had a goal and an assist, and Ty Conklin stopped 34 shots.

Defenseman Erik Johnson scored a first-period power-play goal to snap St. Louis' 0-for-19 drought with the man advantage. The Blues began the night last in the league on the power play at just over 12 percent.

"Our power play hasn't been clicking lately but the attitude tonight was to work hard and get the pucks and play with a 5-on-5 mentality," Oshie said.

The last-place Blues have the same number of points (22) they had after 22 games last season, when they used the best second-half record in the NHL to earn their first playoff berth in four seasons.

All three visits to Nashville last season for St. Louis went past regulation. The teams split two shootouts and the Blues won 2-1 in overtime.