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Thursday, Jan. 4 8:00pm ET
Predators rally past Blues | ||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Seven appears to be enough for St. Louis Blues rookie goalie Brent Johnson. Johnson's second seven-game winning streak ended Thursday night as Richard Lintner and Cliff Ronning ended lengthy goal slumps in Nashville's 4-2 victory over the Blues. "The streak doesn't matter to me, just that we lost," Johnson said. "The more people talked, the more I thought I was jinxing myself." Lintner hadn't scored in 15 games since Nov. 18 before getting his second goal of the season in the first period. Ronning got his first goal in 11 games, his 13th overall, when he deflected Lintner's drive from the point in the second for a 2-0 lead. "On this team, everybody has to score, including me," Ronning said. "It had been a while and I was wondering if I'd ever get another one." Johnson, the backup to Roman Turek who entered with an NHL-leading 1.47 goals-against average, fell to 14-2. "Johnson kept us in there for a while, but there's only so much he can do," forward Tyson Nash said. "The rest is up to us." Vitali Yachmenev added a third-period goal on a rebound shot for the Predators. "Getting the third goal was huge for us," Predators coach Barry Trotz said. "We made it exciting like we seem to do every game." Nash got his sixth goal in the second and Craig Conroy's deflection with 3:45 left cut the gap to one for the Blues, who fell to 16-3-2 at home. Two of the losses have come a week apart, including a 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings last Thursday. St. Louis has lost three of five overall. "It was certainly a brutal game by us," said coach Joel Quenneville, who added the Blues have been handling the puck "like a grenade." Scott Walker clinched it with an empty-net goal, his 14th, with 47.6 seconds remaining with the Predators on the power play. Johnson was screened when Lintner scored from the right side of the net at 11:22 of the first. Ronning redirected Lintner's shot at 1:08 of the second. Conroy threaded a pass from behind the net to set up Nash's goal from the slot at 6:55 of the second. Yachmenev, who agreed to a contract extension earlier in the day, scored his ninth goal at 14:06. The net was wide open after Johnson stopped Bill Houlder's drive. Conroy deflected Chris Pronger's drive from the left point past Mike Dunham at 16:15 of the third for his seventh goal. Game notesThe Blues won the first two meetings, both in Nashville, by a combined 8-2. Turek was in the nets for both of those games for St. Louis. ... Johnson has allowed two or fewer goals in 12 of his 16 starts, including three shutouts. ... The Predators have scored only six goals the last three games, two of them losses. ... The Blues fell to 10-4-1 against the Predators all-time. ... St. Louis had outscored its opponents 46-26 in the previous 11 games. ... The Predators are in a midst of a stretch with five of six games on the road. This was the first of a three-game homestand for the Blues. ... Dunham is 4-4-1 since returning from an injured left knee, and has played in nine of the Predators' last 10 games. |
ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Nashville Clubhouse St. Louis Clubhouse RECAPS Ottawa 8 Tampa Bay 3
Nashville 4 AUDIO/VIDEO   Richard Lintner takes the pass from Scott Hartnell in for the score.avi: 608 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 ATHLETESDIRECT Chris Pronger Official Site | |