Preds stay within 1 point of Kings with tight win over Wild

Steven Stamkos had a goal and an assist for the Nashville Predators in a 2-1 win against the visiting Minnesota Wild on Saturday afternoon.

Matthew Wood also scored and Justus Annunen made 21 saves for Nashville (38-32-10, 86 points), which stayed within a point of the Los Angeles Kings for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

The Predators have two games left and the Kings have three.

Michael McCarron scored and Jesper Wallstedt made 20 saves for Minnesota (45-23-12, 102 points), which came in four points behind the Dallas Stars for second place in the Central Division.

The Predators took a 1-0 lead at 15:01 of the first.

Stamkos pulled the puck out of a corner in the Minnesota zone, then passed it from below the goal line to Luke Evangelista. He passed it back to Stamkos, who scored on a wraparound for his 40th goal of the season.

It's the eighth time Stamkos has reached the 40-goal mark in his 18 NHL seasons.

Nashville stretched the lead to 2-0 at 6:34 of the second.

Wallstedt saved a shot from the right face-off circle by Nick Perbix and the rebound fell at the feet of Stamkos, who made a short backhand feed to Wood that set him up for a score from the inside edge of the right circle.

McCarron scored on a rebound off Jonas Brodin's shot to cut it to 2-1 at 6:54 of the third period.

With the Wild nearly locked into their playoff spot, they rested forwards Joel Eriksson Ek and Mats Zuccarello and defenseman Jared Spurgeon.

Nashville captain Roman Josi returned to the Preds' blue line after he was a late scratch in Thursday's 4-1 loss to the Utah Mammoth because of an upper-body injury.

Annunen was coming off a 5-0 win against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday, the first shutout of the season for Nashville.

--Field Level Media