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Ellis, Predators shut out punchless Avalanche

Jan 23, 2008 - 5:46 AM By Dave Reed PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

DENVER (Ticker) -- The Nashville Predators played the perfect road game to post a 4-0 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday night and earn a split in the season series at two games apiece.

Defenseman Shea Weber had a goal and an assist and Dan Ellis made 38 saves for the Predators, who earned a point for the 13th time in their last 17 games.

Ellis notched his fourth career shutout, all this season, and the Avalanche were blanked at home for the first time since March 27 by Vancouver.

"Our 'D' has done an unbelievable job the entire season," Ellis said. "Forcing guys to bad angles, allowing our goalies to see the puck from the blue line, screen shots, they box guys out, take away second shot opportunities. They have just done an exceptional job."

Weber put the Predators on the board when he beat goaltender Jose Theodore with a slap shot from the left point with 15 seconds remaining on the power play in the first period. Vernon Fiddler and blue-liner Ryan Suter moved the puck around the top of the zone before Weber's shot sailed just inside the far post at 4:51 of the first period.

"I was shooting that side," Weber said. "The puck was a little bit behind me, but I didn't mean to put it in off the post."

Getting an early lead is a key to Nashville's success. The Predators improved to 21-3-2 record when scoring first and 16-3-1 mark when leading after one period.

With Colorado missing three of its primary scoring threats in Joe Sakic, Ryan Smyth and All-Star Paul Stastny, an early lead allowed Nashville to play a conservative game.

"We don't have the firepower that we had at the beginning of the year," Avalanche right wing Ian Laperriere said. "The way we play is to score one more goal than the other team and play great defensively. We didn't do that tonight."

The Predators broke open the game with a pair of goals 80 seconds apart early in the third period.

"Going into the third, we were pretty tired and going with a short bench in a pretty emotional game," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "The early goal gave us some life and we followed up with a couple of other ones."

Martin Erat put a one-timer from the bottom of the left circle past Theodore 59 seconds into the period, then Alexander Radulov scored after taking a feed from J.P. Dumont, who extended his point streak to 14 games.

Erat scored 5:53 into the period when he one-timed a pass from Jerred Smithson from the inside of the left circle. It marks the 10th time this season Nashville has scored two power-play goals in a game.

"In the third period, we knew they were going to come out hard," Erat said. "In this league, you can't just stay back. We went after them and scored a quick three goals."

Colorado continued to struggle on the power play, failing on all four of its opportunities. During the last 13 games, the Avalanche have converted on just three of their last 41 opportunities and have gone scoreless on the power play in 11 of those games.

"We created a lot of chances," said Marek Svatos, who leads Colorado with 20 goals this season. "We just didn't put one in. Their goalie had an unbelievable game and he stopped everything."