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Preds hope to extend success over Avalanche

Feb 18, 2013 - 3:35 PM (Sports Network) - The Nashville Predators try to get themselves back into the win column on Monday when they play a matinee against the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center.

Bouncing back may not be a problem for Nashville, which has won its last nine against the Avalanche, including the last four in Denver.

Nashville saw its modest two-game winning streak come to an end on Saturday with a 3-2 shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks. Shea Weber and David Legwand scored for the Predators, who had won six of eight coming into the contest.

"That's a real good team over there," said Nashville head coach Barry Trotz. "They capitalized on their chances and we had a few bad mistakes on defense. Still, we played good at times and got a point, but couldn't pull off the win."

Pekka Rinne stopped 20 shots in the loss, but had his career-best 155:06 shutout streak ended in the first period. Rinne has been terrific this season and has three shutouts in his last five outings and a 0.97 goals against average in his last eight starts.

Rinne's been even better against the Avs, posting an 8-0-0 mark with a 1.93 GAA in his last nine appearances against them. He stopped 84-of-89 shots in four games (three starts) in 2011-12 to help Nashville earn its second consecutive season sweep.

Nashville and Rinne may be the last thing the Avs want to see on Monday following perhaps their worst effort of the season on Saturday, a 6-4 loss to the Edmonton Oilers. Colorado jumped out to a 3-0 lead in that one and led 4-1 in the second before falling for the fourth time in five games.

"We got what we deserved tonight," coach Joe Sacco said. "We gave up close to 60 shots tonight (The Oilers had a club-record 56), which is something we are obviously not proud of as a group. We need to make sure we respond the right way from this. Losing is losing and you are going to lose some games, but not the way that we lost tonight. It was unacceptable."

Matt Duchene and Jamie McGinn each posted a goal and two assists for the Avalanche, while Semyon Varlamov was tagged for all five goals on 55 shots in the loss. The 50 shots saved were the second most in team history, but Varlamov has now lost seven of his last eight starts.

"They just outplayed us, bottom line," Duchene admitted. "It's really disappointing to lose that one. Up 4-1 you should never those. That one's going to sting."

Colorado, which is 3-2-1 at home this season, has not beaten the Preds since a 2-1 victory in Denver back on Jan. 22, 2010.