Nashville Predators visit San Jose Sharks

By Hank Bonecutter | March 14, 2012 |

Nashville Predators at San Jose Sharks
Thursday, March 15th, 2012 at 9:30pm CT
San Jose, CA | HP Pavilion

San Jose, CA – Thursday night, the Nashville Predators and the San Jose Sharks close out their season series at HP Pavilion.  Nashville is 2-1-0 against San Jose this season after going 2-0-2 against San Jose in 2010-11, tying its best record against the Sharks in franchise history – the Predatorss also garnered six points against the Sharks in 2005-06 (2-0-2) and 2006-07 (3-1-0).

Close games have been the trend between these two clubs as of late, as 13 of the last 17 games – dating back to February 9th, 2008 – have been decided by one goal.

San Jose and Nashville last met in the Music City on February 25th, as the Predators beat the Sharks, 6-2 – their largest margin of victory over San Jose since February 14th, 2007, when Nashville shutout San Jose, 5-0.  Colin Wilson and Shea Weber scored just 1:20 apart to put the Predators up 2-0 early in the first. Kevin Klein added another goal for Nashville late in the opening frame to give it a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes. Weber notched his second goal of the game on the power play as the teams traded markers in the middle period. Martin Erat and Nick Spaling iced the win for the Predators with goals in the final two minutes of play.

Weber has nine points (3g-6a) in Nashville’s last seven games against San Jose… David Legwand has six points (3g-3a) in his last six games against the Sharks… Pekka Rinne is 5-2-3 with a 2.43 GAA and a .932 save percentage in 11 career games against San Jose.

Last Time Out

Predators 5, Phoenix 4 (SO) at Jobing.com Arena

• The road team won all four match-ups between Nashville and Phoenix this season.
• Nashville won in the shootout for the first time since December 30th against St. Louis.
• Pekka Rinne improved his shootout save percentage to .761 all-time. That is fourth-best among active goaltenders with at least 75 attempts against.
• Martin Erat opened the scoring for Nashville with just 29 second remaining in the first period. Nashville has now posted 23 goals in the final minute of periods this season.  Erat has accounted for a team-high five of those 23 final-minute goals, while assisting on five more.
• Francis Bouillon scored for the first time in 87 games. His last goal came on November 3rd, 2010 at Phoenix.
• Craig Smith notched his second goal in his last four games. That goal tied him with Erat for second on the Preds all-time rookie scoring list (13g-20a-33pts). Smith ranks second on the team in road points with 22 (9g-13a).
• Paul Gaustad posted an assist on Smith’s goal, giving him three points (3a) in five games as a Predator. He won 12-of-19 faceoffs (63 percent), moving him into seventh in the League in face-off efficiency (57.4 percent).
• Nashville posted at least a goal in all three periods. It has only been scoreless in only two of its last 24 periods played, giving the Preds the ninth best goals-for average (2.84), despite ranking 27th in shots per game average (27.3).
• Nashville was assessed just one penalty for the eighth time this season. Nashville ranks eighth in the League and fourth in the Western Conference for fewest times shorthanded this season (210).
• The Predators’ power play has not allowed a goal against in five straight games and has only allowed a power-play marker in just one of their last 13 outings – killing 25-of-27 during that span.
• Nashville put 35 shots or more on goal for just the 10th time this season, and the first time since February 7th against Vancouver. David Legwand and Gabriel Bourque were the only Preds without a shot on goal.

As Nashville makes a push for its seventh playoff berth in the last eight seasons, it has posted a 41-21-7 record for 89 points through 69 games this season.  A season ago, Nashville was 35-24-10 for 80 points through 69 games. It went 9-3-1 in its final 13 games of 2010-11 to finish with 99 points, good for fifth in the West. This season, the Preds play seven of their final 13 games against teams currently holding a playoff position.

The Predators have won 18 road games this season – the fourth most in franchise history.  They are just two road wins shy of posting at least 20 road victories for the third straight season. Eight of Nashville’s final 13 games will be played away from Bridgestone Arena, including three in the Pacific Time Zone, two in the Central, two in the Eastern, and the final game of the regular season in the Mountain.

Nashville Predators snap winless streak Tuesday night. (Nashville Predators)

With its 3-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings last Saturday, Nashville became just the second team in the NHL to post at least 40 wins in seven consecutive seasons – the Red Wings are the only other team to do so. With Saturday night’s win, Nashville also became the only team in the League to post at least 23 home wins in each of the last seven seasons. The Predators are now just four wins shy of the franchise’s 500th victory.

With his second three-point (1g-2a) effort of the season against Phoenix on Monday, Martin Erat hit the 50-point plateau for the fifth time in his last six campaigns (17g-35a-52pts). The Trebic, Czech Republic native is the only player in franchise history to post at least 50 points more than three times.

Erat’s 52 points are just five points shy of his career-high 57 points hit in both the 2006-07 (16g-41a) and 2007-08 (23g-34a) seasons. He has notched 10 points (4g-6a) in his last 10 games and has been a point-per-game player (9g-20a-29pts, 29gp) since Jan. 7. Erat ranks among the League’s Top 15 point getters during that span.

Fisher is a plus-13 in 2011-12 despite playing against the eighth most difficult quality of competition among NHL forwards, according to the behindthenet.ca.  He is tied for the team lead in goals (21) and leads Nashville forwards in average ice time (19:11). The Predators are 14-0-3 when Fisher scores this season.

With assists on Nashville’s first two goals in Monday’s 5-4 SO win at Phoenix, Kostitsyn notched the primary assists on four straight Predator goals dating back to Nashville’s second goal against Detroit on March 10th.  Kostitsyn has back-to-back multi-point games for the first time this season, giving him a total of nine multiple point efforts on the year. The younger Kostitsyn has posted 15 points (5g-10a) in his last 16 games. He ranks among the League’s most accurate shooters, after scoring 17 goals on 80 shots this season (21.3 percent).

The puck drops at 9:30pm Thurday night in San Jose.

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