Preds Take Playoff Quest to St. Louis

(Sports Network) - For three games, netminder Dan Ellis was nearly perfect. However, one slip up again has the Nashville Predators outside of the playoff picture, a situation the club will hope to better tonight against the St. Louis Blues at Scottrade Center.

After allowing just one goal in the first period of a shootout win over Chicago on March 22, Ellis posted back-to-back shutouts over Columbus, making a total of 79 saves. He then stretched his shutout streak to a franchise-best 233 minutes and 39 seconds before Detroit's Johan Franzen beat him with 1:39 left in overtime of Sunday's 1-0 loss to Detroit.

Though the Predators picked up a point, they fell one point back of Vancouver for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference after the Canucks downed Calgary on Sunday. Both teams have three games remaining, and Vancouver hosts Colorado tonight.

It was a tough loss for the Predators on Sunday, as they wasted another great outing by Ellis and saw Ryan Suter get into the Detroit zone on a breakaway 1:37 into the extra frame versus the Red Wings only to get stopped by Dominik Hasek.

Ellis finished with 35 saves for the Predators, who had a three-game winning streak halted. Nashville will conclude a three-game road trip tonight before hosting St. Louis on Thursday in the back end of this home-and-home set.

The Predators are 17-17-5 on the road this season.

While far outside the playoff picture, the Blues are at least on a milestone watch with four games left to play. Keith Tkachuk scored in Saturday's 4-3 loss to Chicago, leaving him three shy of 500 for his career.

Brad Boyes added a goal and two assists, while Paul Kariya also had a goal and a helper. For Kariya, who leads the Blues with 46 assists, it was his first goal in 23 games. Manny Legace allowed all four goals on only 19 shots as the Blues lost for the eighth time in 10 games.

Boyes, who leads the Blues with 41 goals and 63 points, has three goals and three assists in his last two games and six goals in six games against Nashville this year.

St. Louis has lost five of its last six at home and are 19-15-5 at Scottrade Center this year.

Nashville and St. Louis have split six meetings so far this year, with the Preds winning the last three games. The Predators have won 18 of their last 22 against the Blues though, and are 8-3 with a tie in their last 12 trips to St. Louis.

From The Sports Network