Goaltender Justus Annunen posted his first shutout of the season and Erik Haula netted one goal and one assist to pace the visiting Nashville Predators to a 5-0 victory over the slumping Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday.
Annunen made 43 saves for his third career shutout as the Predators jumped into a playoff position.
Filip Forsberg, Brady Skjei, Zachary L’Heureux and Fedor Svechkov all tallied once for the Predators (37-31-10, 84 points).
Ryan O’Reilly and Joakim Kemell both collected a pair of assists.
The victory is the first shutout of the season for the Predators.
Nashville, which was last in the league standings on Dec. 8, jumped one point ahead of the Los Angeles Kings in the chase for the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot.
Nashville has four games remaining in the regular season, one fewer than the Kings. The San Jose Sharks are three points back of Nashville but with two games in hand.
Goalie Lukas Dostal stopped 20 shots for the Ducks (41-32-5, 87 points), who have lost six straight games, five of them in regulation time.
The Ducks are one point behind the Pacific Division-leading Edmonton Oilers, but in the third spot. The Vegas Golden Knights are tied with the Oilers in points but trail via the tiebreaker. All three teams have four games remaining in the regular season.
After a blanked first period, the Predators opened the scoring when Haula went untouched to the slot and while using a defender as a screen fired a top-corner shot at 7:07 of the second period.
Forsberg doubled the Nashville lead on the power play by firing a shot through a collection of players screening the goaltender and finding the mark at 11:26 for his fifth goal in as many outings.
Skjei gave Nashville a three-goal edge when he went top corner on a short-handed breakaway opportunity with one minute remaining in the second period.
L’Heureux extended the edge just before the midway point of the third period by scoring on an odd-man rush, and Svechkov rounded out the scoring by redirecting Tyson Jost’s pass at 15:07 of the final frame.
–Field Level Media
