NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Predators head into Salt Lake City on April 9 with a real chance to tighten the Western Conference race when they meet the Utah Mammoth at Delta Center. Puck drop is set for 8 p.m. CT, and a regulation win would pull Nashville within two points of Utah in the Wild Card chase.
The Predators enter the night in the second Wild Card spot after a 5-0 shutout in Anaheim on Tuesday, while the Mammoth hold the first spot and have won four straight. Nashville has taken seven of a possible eight points on its five-game road trip and has four games left in the regular season, making this the kind of game that can tilt the final stretch either way.
Andrew Brunette said the club is not looking beyond the next game. “We're just day to day – don't really look at what's behind us,” he said. “We've got another road game, and then we're going to approach it the same way we approach all of them.” He added, “Get a little bit of rest here,” and said, “We know Utah's a really good team, and a team we're chasing, and we want to put our best foot forward next game.”
Nashville’s win in Anaheim was its first shutout since Jan. 3, 2025, when it beat Vancouver 3-0, and the first time the team had scored five or more goals in a shutout victory since an 8-0 win at San Jose on March 5, 2022. Erik Haula, Filip Forsberg, Brady Skjei, Zach L’Heureux and Fedor Svechkov scored Tuesday, while Justus Annunen made 43 saves and became the third goalie in Predators history to make as many as 43 saves in a shutout victory. His workload mattered, because Nashville did not practice Wednesday after the back-to-back set and is scheduled for a morning skate in Salt Lake City before facing Utah.
Brunette said Nic Hague remains day to day with an upper-body injury, while Ozzy Wiesblatt and Jordan Oesterle were healthy scratches Tuesday. Juuse Saros is scheduled to start against Utah, giving Nashville its usual goaltending anchor at a time when the standings have little room for a misstep.
The matchup also puts two very different offensive runs on the same ice. Utah beat Edmonton 6-5 in overtime Tuesday and has scored at least six goals in each of its four straight wins. Clayton Keller leads the Mammoth with 54 assists and 80 points, Nick Schmaltz has 30 goals and 70 points, and Dylan Guenther has 38 goals and 69 points. Karel Vejmelka is 36-19-3 in net, with Vitek Vanecek at 5-11-3.
Nashville’s top scorers have done enough to keep the club in the race. Filip Forsberg leads the Predators with 73 points and 38 goals, Ryan O’Reilly has 72 points with 25 goals and 47 assists, Steven Stamkos is one goal from 40 and has 61 points, and Luke Evangelista has 41 assists and 51 points. Forsberg’s power-play goal Tuesday stretched his point streak to five games, a run in which he has five goals and three assists, while Joakim Kemell picked up his first career multi-point game with two assists. The penalty kill also went 6-for-6 for the second time this season, matching its Dec. 4 game at Florida.
History gives Nashville some confidence, too. The Predators are 3-2-1 all-time against Utah and are 2-0-0 in Salt Lake City since the franchise’s inception last season. That does not make Thursday any easier, but it does underline why this road game matters: Nashville can leave Utah either firmly in the race or back on the edge of it.
Saros, the road trip and the standings all point to the same place. If the Predators win in regulation, the gap shrinks to two points and the final four games start to look a lot more urgent for everyone else.
