ST. LOUIS (AP) – Nashville Predators goalie Pekka Rinne loves playing against the St. Louis Blues.
Calle Jarnkrok scored his second goal in two games and Rinne made 29 saves as the Predators beat the Blues 2-1 on Wednesday night, snapping their season-high three-game losing streak.
“I don’t want to jinx anything,” Rinne said. “I think that’s a good team, one of the top teams in the league. I think we match up pretty well. It’s never about me. I think as a team we did a good job in front of me.”
Craig Smith scored his 13th of the season for the Predators, who leapfrogged the Blues to take over first place in the Central Division with 49 points.
“I thought we were a little loose in the first period,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “I thought we gave up too many shots, too many attempts. I don’t think we played a very clean first period. I thought we cleaned up our game in the second period and that reduced the shots on net and the attempts on net and the amount of time that we spent in the defensive zone.”