Justus Annunen Posted His First Shutout of the Season and Nashville Just Jumped Into a Playoff Spot
The Nashville Predators walked into Honda Center on Tuesday and shut down the Anaheim Ducks completely. Final score: 5-0. Goaltender Justus Annunen stopped all 43 shots he faced for his first shutout of the season, his third career blank sheet. Erik Haula led the way with one goal and one assist. This wasn't just a win for Nashville. This was a statement that moved them directly into a playoff position in the Western Conference's second wild card race.
From the Basement to Playoff Contention
Remember December 8th? That's when the Predators were sitting dead last in the entire league standings. Fast forward four months and they are now one point ahead of the Los Angeles Kings in the hunt for that second wild card spot. Nashville sits at 37-31-10 with 84 points, and they've got four games left to play. The Kings have one more game remaining, so every point matters right now. San Jose is lurking three points back but holds two games in hand, which means this thing is far from settled.
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Anaheim is in serious trouble. The Ducks have now lost six straight games, with five of those losses coming in regulation. They're 41-32-5 with 87 points, and they're stuck in third place in the Pacific Division, one point behind the Edmonton Oilers. Vegas is tied with Edmonton in points but trails on the tiebreaker. All three teams have four games left, so the division race is still wide open. But Anaheim's losing streak is brutal. Goalie Lukas Dostal made 20 saves but couldn't keep the bleeding from getting worse.
How Nashville Broke It Open
The first period was silent. Then at 7:07 of the second, Haula skated untouched to the slot, used a defender as a screen, and fired a top-corner shot past Dostal. Forsberg made it 2-0 on the power play at 11:26, snapping a shot through traffic. Skjei buried a short-handed breakaway with one minute left in the period to go up 3-0. L'Heureux scored on an odd-man rush early in the third, and Svechkov finished it off by redirecting a Tyson Jost pass with just over two minutes to play. Five different Predators found the back of the net. That's the kind of balanced attack that wins in April.
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