Predators 4 - 1 Avalanche
Final
  for this game

Preds visit Avs in home-and-home opener

Jan 10, 2012 - 4:05 PM (Sports Network) - The Nashville Predators got their power play going over the weekend.

As if they needed another weapon against the Colorado Avalanche in the opener of a home-and-home series.

The Preds try to stretch their winning streak over the Avs to six straight games this evening just three days after they lit up the Hurricanes for four power-play goals in a 5-2 victory on Saturday.

Patric Hornqvist scored twice on the man advantage, Ryan Ellis and Craig Smith also scored on the power play and Shea Weber had the lone even-strength tally for the Predators, who had gone 0-for-16 on the man advantage over their previous five games.

"Being able to make those passes and making them quick, they started forcing us and we were able to bypass the pressure and score some goals," Weber said of his team's power-play success.

Weber has been key to the offense, with the defenseman notching eight goals and 22 points over his past 22 games. He leads Nashville with 30 points and is tied for second among NHL blueliners with nine goals and five power-play tallies.

Mike Fisher matched a career high with three assists and Pekka Rinne made 27 saves to help Nashville win for the fourth time in five games. It sits tied for seventh in the Western Conference, one point up on Colorado, and five points behind a trio of teams for first place in the Central Division.

After taking two of three on a homestand, the Predators open a home-and-home series against the Avalanche having won seven of the past eight meetings. Tonight marks the first of four encounters this year after Nashville outscored Colorado 17-8 in last season's sweep.

The Avalanche have dropped three of their last four at home to the Preds, but have won nine of their last 10 at the Pepsi Center overall. Colorado returns home after having a four-game road win streak halted on Saturday with a 4-0 defeat in St. Louis.

One day after shutting out the Blackhawks, the Avs were outshot by the Blues 39-15.

"They certainly deserve a lot of credit for that win," Avalanche head coach Joe Sacco said. "They had fresh legs from the start."

Sacco had gone with a split of Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Semyon Varlamov during his club's recent 9-1 stretch, with the former allowing all four goals on 39 shots on Saturday.

Matt Duchene leads the Avalanche with 12 goals, one more than both Milan Hejduk and Paul Stastny, but has missed the past four games with a right knee injury that is expected to sideline him for a month.






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