NASHVILLE, Tenn. _ In a potential first-round playoff preview, putting together an actual winning streak for the first time in a month was too much to ask from the Wild during a Saturday matinee at Bridgestone Arena when the Nashville Predators broke out late in the second period en route to a 3-0 win.
The loss by the Wild clinched the Central Division and home-ice throughout the Western Conference playoffs for the Chicago Blackhawks and certainly helped the Predators, who no doubt would love to climb into the third hole in the Central and face the Wild in the first round rather than meet the Blackhawks.
It was a disappointing loss for the Wild, who hoped for better fortune after turning the calendar on a 4-10-2 March.
The Wild, which once upon a time won 12 consecutive games this season and went 30-6-2 during one torrid three-month run, hasn't won two in a row since Feb. 27-28.
One game after coach Bruce Boudreau went with four consistent lines an entire night, he scrambled his lines to start the second and third periods.
The Wild suffered their fifth shutout of the season _ first where the score wasn't 1-0.
Alex Stalock, getting a second straight start after Thursday's win over Ottawa so Devan Dubnyk could get an extra day's rest and likely start Sunday against the Colorado Avalanche, and Pekka Rinne had a heck of a goaltending duel going into the waning minutes of the second.
But starting at the 17:21 mark of the period, Filip Forsberg and Kevin Fiala struck 10 seconds apart to turn a 0-0 game into a 2-0 Predators' stranglehold as too sleepy shifts cost the Wild. P.K. Subban later scored an empty-net goal with 2:23 left moments after Mikael Granlund blew an open net by hitting the far post from a few feet away.
Despite the Wild doing a largely decent job in their own end for much of the game, the Joel Eriksson Ek-Mikko Koivu-Granlund line and defensemen Ryan Suter and Jared Spurgeon got chasing the puck for a shift in their own end. It ended with an icing.
Because the five skaters looked tired and were on the ice for 55 seconds, Boudreau called timeout to give them some rest.
Didn't work.
Koivu, quarrelling with the linesmen before and after draws all game, lost a faceoff cleanly to Ryan Johansen, and Forsberg scored with a perfect deflection of Subban's shot that Stalock had no chance on.
On the ensuing shift, Jonas Brodin sent Nino Niederreiter a pass in the neutral zone. He was pressured, lost the battle and the puck slid into the Wild end. That became a huge problem because Brodin for some reason skated to the blue line.
That gave Fiala a free lane to the net when Christian Folin defended for a possible 2-on-1. Fiala, who was robbed by Stalock earlier in the period, scored.
So, a quality game ruined in seconds.
It was a shame, too, because Stalock came to play.
Just 43 seconds into the game, Stalock, who a few days ago was Iowa's starter, made a highlight reel slide to his left to rob what looked like a sure goal by Calle Jarnkrok. He was swallowing most shots, and when he couldn't, he was controlling his rebounds.
In the second, after a Marco Scandella giveaway, he came out aggressively to challenge Jarnkrok again and denied him. Later, he robbed Colton Sissons.
On the other end, Rinne was sharp, too, after the Wild came out buzzing and reeled off eight of the game's first 11 shots. His best sequence came in the second when the game was still scoreless. Back-to-back, he stopped Christian Folin's deflected shot, then Zach Parise's rebound attempt.
It was a sign Rinne, who made 30 saves, was dialed in. It was his 43rd career shutout, fourth against the Wild.
The Wild played without left wing Jason Zucker, who has a lower-body injury, and the Predators were without James Neal, who was struck in the face by a puck in the previous game.
