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Dumont, Preds visit Colorado

Jan 20, 2011 - 4:18 PM (Sports Network) - The Nashville Predators are not a high-scoring team, but you wouldn't know that given veteran J.P. Dumont's recent surge.

Dumont and the Preds try for a second straight victory this evening as they visit a Colorado Avalanche club hoping for a third straight win of its own tonight at the Pepsi Center.

Nashville is 22nd in the league with just 2.59 goals per game and its leading scorer, Patric Hornqvist, has just 15 tallies on the season. Two of those came in Tuesday's 5-2 victory in Phoenix, where Dumont notched his first hat trick since Nov. 12, 2001.

Dumont's three-goal game was the fourth of his career and upped his season goal total to nine. Five of those have come in his last two games.

"It's definitely nice, but at this point in my career, it's all about winning games and having success in the playoffs," said Dumont.

Nashville, which has missed the postseason the last two years, is tied for fourth in the Western Conference and is six points back of first-place Detroit in the Central Division standings. Pekka Rinne ended with 32 saves as the Predators have won eight of their last 10 overall.

Having also won five of their last seven on the road, the Preds have split the first two contests of a six-game swing and are 14-11-1 as the guest club this season.

They have struggled in Colorado, where they have dropped three of four and six of their last nine. The Predators did win three of the four meetings last year overall, however.

Rinne is 3-3-0 with a 2.82 goals-against average in his career versus the Avalanche, who trail the Preds by two points in the West standings.

Colorado picked up its second straight victory and third in four games on Tuesday with a 4-3 overtime win over Vancouver. The second-place Avs, though, still trail the Canucks by 11 points in the Northwest Division.

David Jones scored twice, including the game-winner on a power play in overtime, while John-Michael Liles and Milan Hejduk notched power-play goals and two assists each.

"We battled back and I don't think we started quite as quick as we wanted to," Liles said. "But we got to our game in the second half of the first period. We picked it up and we battled back. That's a tough team to play. We got some timely goals tonight, which was huge."

Craig Anderson was big with 40 saves and will get his third straight start tonight as Colorado tries to win three straight for the first time since a six-game run from Dec. 10-19.

Colorado won the opener of a five-game homestand and is expected to have defenseman Kyle Cumiskey back in the lineup for the first time since Oct. 30 due to a concussion. He has missed the last 35 games.

Anderson is 3-4-3 with a 2.88 GAA in his career versus the Predators.