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Ward leads Predators past Coyotes

Feb 27, 2009 - 4:54 AM NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Ticker) -- Joel Ward had a goal and an assist and the Nashville Predators recorded their third straight win Thursday with a 4-1 triumph over the Phoenix Coyotes.

Captain Jason Arnott, Steve Sullivan and David Legwand also scored for the Predators as they followed Tuesday's five-goal outburst against Chicago with another stellar offensive performance in this one.

"That was a big win against a team that was back in the pack a little bit," said Nashville coach Barry Trotz, whose team is one point behind Minnesota, Edmonton, Dallas and Anaheim in the tightly packed Western Conference.

"Hopefully the right teams win, and the right teams lose so we can get closer into that pack."

Rookie Pekka Rinne made sure the four goals stood up, stopping 25 shots to record his second win over the Coyotes this month.

"Tonight was a pretty easy game for me," Rinne said. "They didn't have too many scoring chances. I don't think they were ready to go at the beginning of the game, and we took advantage of it."

Atlanta held a 47-26 advantage in shots on goal, but Ilya Bryzgalov made 32 of his 43 saves in the opening two periods to keep Phoenix within a goal at 2-1.

"Well, the first period would have been 5-0 if not for the goaltending. We got outskated, and we came out flat," Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky said. "We're paid a lot of money to play the game, and you should at least give an effort. It wasn't a very good effort tonight."

Ward's 10th goal of the season doubled the advantage for Nashville just 85 seconds into the third. In his first full season in the NHL, Ward spun in the left faceoff circle and put the puck between the pads of Bryzgalov.

"You are not going to score unless you shoot," Ward said. "I was fortunate to kind of slip one by him."

The Predators put the game away on a 4-on-1 break with just under 5 1/2 minutes to go. Ward fed a wide-open Legwand, who scored his 16th goal of the season and extended the bulge to three.

Defenseman Ed Jovanovski had the lone tally for Phoenix, which fell to 3-11-0 in its last 14 games.

"The whole game, Bryzgalov was unbelievable," Phoenix captain Shane Doan said. "The power play didn't get a goal, but we tried to tie it up. They outplayed us, and Wayne wasn't happy with our effort overall. We weren't either. They got off almost 50 shots. (Bryzgalov) played phenomenal tonight."

Sullivan opened the scoring with 6:31 remaining in the first period as Nashville owned a 19-10 shots advantage, but could only manage the one goal.

After Jovanovski tied the game with 8:56 left in the middle session, Arnott gave the Predators the lead right back 54 ticks later on his team-leading 23rd goal of the season.