Avalanche 1 - 3 Predators
Final
  for this game

Preds try to snap skid against road-challenged Avs

Apr 2, 2013 - 3:42 PM (Sports Network) - The Nashville Predators aim to avoid their second four-game losing streak in less than three weeks as they battle the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday evening for the second time in four days.

The Preds dropped a season-high four straight from March 14-19 before rebounding to win three in a row. However, that run was snapped with a regulation loss to the Phoenix Coyotes ahead of consecutive post-regulation setbacks to Colorado and the Chicago Blackhawks.

Nashville had to rally to get its point on Monday night versus the Blackhawks, getting goals from David Legwand and Taylor Beck in the third period of a 3-2 shootout loss. Legwand got the Predators on the board at the 3:56 mark of the third when he jammed a puck past a slow-covering Corey Crawford and Beck tied the game 3 1/2 minutes later.

"We got a little bit of a lucky goal ... and that gave us momentum," Predators head coach Barry Trotz said of Legwand's tally.

Pekka Rinne was busy with 38 saves, but was beaten twice in the five-round shootout.

The loss leaves the Predators two points back of the eighth-place St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference.

Monday was a second straight solid outing by Rinne, who made 23 saves on 24 shots faced in Saturday's 1-0 overtime loss at the Avalanche. He kept Colorado off the board until the 50-second mark of overtime, when Tyson Barrie found the back of the net.

Semyon Varlamov made 34 saves for the Avs in his 11th career shutout.

It was a much different game from when the clubs met in Denver on Feb. 18, a wild 6-5 win for the Avalanche. Matt Duchene and Aaron Palushaj both had a goal and two assists for Colorado.

The Avs had been swept by the Predators in each of the previous two seasons and had dropped nine straight and 11 of the previous 12 encounters before winning the two home meetings this season.

Colorado has lost six straight and seven of its last eight in Nashville.

That isn't good news for an Avalanche team that has lost 12 straight on the road overall and is just 2-13-3 as the guest on the year. Saturday's win over the Predators was just one of two wins overall that Colorado has over its last 11 games and the club is coming off Monday's 3-2 setback at the Detroit Red Wings.

Coming off the shutout win over the Preds, Varlamov made 10 saves and was pulled after allowing his third goal of the game at the 9:54 mark of the second period. Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped all seven shots faced in relief, but the Avs could not complete a rally.

Jamie McGinn got Colorado on the board with a power-play tally 5:52 into the third period and Duchene made it a one-goal game with 1:18 to play before time ran out on the Avs.

"It's really brutal and unacceptable," said Duchene about the road woes. "I could keep throwing out adjectives here to describe it, but at the end of the day it's just not good enough."

Colorado is last in the Western Conference with 28 points, 10 back of a playoff spot, and placed forwards Paul Stastny (foot) and Milan Hejduk (shoulder) on injured reserve ahead of Monday's game.






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