Predators fire blanks at home

Phoenix one win from Western final

NASHVILLE – Shane Doan scored in the first period, Mike Smith made 25 saves and the Phoenix Coyotes beat the Nashville Predators 1-0 on Friday night to grab a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference semifinal series.

By winning their first game in the month of May, the Coyotes can advance to the conference finals with a win in Game 5 on Monday night in Arizona.

The Predators played with forwards Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn scratched for a second straight game, this time the decision by coach Barry Trotz to stick with the lineup that won 2-0 on Wednesday night.

They sorely missed their offence, though Nashville thought it tied it with 7:12 remaining. But officials waved off the power-play goal because a whistle blew before the puck crossed the line.

The Predators outshot Phoenix 25-24, but had chances with the net open they simply missed with Radulov and Kostitsyn on the sideline. Radulov leads Nashville with a team-high six points in the postseason, and Kostitsyn is tied for the team lead with three goals. Fans cheered the announcement that the two were scratched after they were suspended for Game 3 for an apparent curfew violation last weekend in Arizona. Canada squeaks past Slovaks at IIHF: Team Canada received a stern test on the opening day of the IIHF world men’s hockey championship, squeaking past Slovakia 3-2 in Helsinki, Finland.

Jamie Benn, Jordan Eberle and Andrew Ladd scored for the Canadians, while Tomas Tatar and Milan Bartovic replied for the Slovaks.

“They don’t give up much, they can skate and they know how to play the game over here,” said associate coach Kirk Muller. “They key for us is that we got key goals at the right time.”

Cam Ward was solid for Canada, stopping 20 shots.

Canada faces the U.S. on Saturday (11:45 a.m., TSN).