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Preds continue swing with stop in Jersey

Nov 10, 2013 - 3:59 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Nashville Predators will try to bounce back from a lopsided loss as they continue their seven-game road trip with Sunday's battle against the New Jersey Devils.

Nashville was off to a solid 2-0-1 start on its longest swing of the season before getting slammed by a 5-0 score Friday night in Winnipeg. The Predators were down 4-0 to the Jets after the first period and never recovered from the early onslaught.

The Predators fired 41 shots at Winnipeg goaltender Ondrej Pavelec, but were still shut out for a third time this season. The 5-0 defeat also matched Nashville's worst losing margin of the season, tying the club's 6-1 home loss to St. Louis on Oct. 26.

Carter Hutton was yanked after giving up three goals on eight shots in only 8:23 of action for the Predators, who couldn't maintain momentum from Wednesday's 6-4 win at Colorado.

Marek Mazanec made his NHL debut in relief and gave up two scores on 24 shots.

"Too many odd man rushes and we turned over pucks. All the damage was done in the first half of the first period. We weren't ready and they jumped on top of us," noted Predators defenseman Shea Weber.

Hutton, who is the club's de facto No. 1 goaltender with Pekka Rinne on the shelf, expects to get the start again on Sunday.

Forwards Mike Fisher (lower body) and Matt Hendricks (upper body) are questionable for Sunday's game. Fisher has missed the last two games for Nashville, while Hendricks has sat out the past three.

The Devils also will try for a rebound performance on Sunday. New Jersey ended a two-game slide with Thursday's 3-0 win at Philadelphia, but then lost the finale of a three-game road trip the following night in Toronto. James van Riemsdyk netted the lone goal of the shootout, leading the Maple Leafs to a 2-1 decision over New Jersey.

Michael Ryder lit the lamp and Cory Schneider stopped 27 shots for the Devils, who have dropped three of their last four.

After four straight chances were turned aside, van Riemsdyk was the third shooter for Toronto, opening up the final round by beating Schneider on the forehand.

Leafs netminder Jonathan Bernier then forced an Adam Henrique chance wide to end the contest.

"I don't have an answer," Devils head coach Pete DeBoer said after his club fell to 0-4 this season and 0-for-14 in the breakaway round. "We'll have to look at some other options, some different things. I don't have an answer right now for that."

New Jersey also fell to 0-1-3 when playing the second game on back-to-back nights.

Martin Brodeur will get the start in net tonight and is 6-5-1 with a 2.55 goals against average in 12 career games against the Predators.

The Devils are 3-1-1 over their last five games against Nashville, but the Preds have taken two of three and four of the past six encounters in New Jersey.