Preds eliminated with shootout loss to Stars
- Updated: April 8, 2014
The Nashville Predators battled back from two one-goal deficits thanks to a couple of Gabriel Bourque goals but, in the end, Tyler Seguin scored in the fourth round of the shootout to give the Dallas Stars the victory. With the loss, the Preds were officially eliminated from the playoffs.
Pekka Rinne played well — including a right toe save that would have given Dallas the lead late in the game — and made 28 saves despite the loss. He fell to 8-10-3 on the season.
Nashville is now 6-1-2 in their last nine but even that isn’t enough to get into the postseason for the eighth time in 10 seasons. Instead, they’ll miss for the second consecutive year for the first time since 2001-02 and 2002-03.
The final spot in the Western Conference will go to either Dallas or the Phoenix Coyotes. They each have three games remaining on their schedule with their final game against each other, maybe in a winner-goes-on, loser-goes-home scenario.
It will be interesting to see what the Predators roster looks like come Thursday when they take on Phoenix at home. Will they call up some prospects from their top minor league affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals?
Puck drops at 7:00pm Central.