DENVER (AP) The Nashville Predators didn’t break out the bubbly

DENVER (AP) The Nashville Predators didn’t break out the bubbly or anything rowdy like that after becoming the first NHL team to clinch a playoff spot this season.”Business as usual Adrian Kempe Jersey ,” defenseman Ryan Ellis said of the low-key celebration that included some pizza. ”Back to work.”Colton Sissons and Filip Forsberg each scored twice, backup goaltender Juuse Saros stopped 33 shots and the Predators secured their postseason berth by beating the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 on Friday night.The streaking Predators are 13-0-1 in their last 14 games and haven’t lost in regulation since Feb. 17 against Detroit.”The guys knew with a win tonight we would clinch and I think they fought hard for it,” coach Peter Laviolette said. ”I really liked our game tonight.”Starting goalie Pekka Rinne was given the night off after helping Nashville to a win Thursday at Arizona. The team didn’t miss a beat with Saros in net.Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog had the goals for a Colorado team that returned home after earning two straight road wins, including Thursday in St. Louis. The loss snapped Colorado’s string of nine straight games with a point. The squad still remains in the thick of the playoff chase.Semyon Varlamov turned back 24 shots as he started both games of a back-to-back for the first time this season.”There’s no rest at this time of the year. We have to make a push,” Varlamov said. ”Nashville’s a really good team, tough to play against, but I think we played strong today, had a really good game. We just didn’t score. We had a couple good chances at the end.”MacKinnon nearly tied the game late in the third period http://www.kingsproshop.com/authentic-alex-iafallo-jersey , but his shot hit off the shoulder of Saros. Nashville also weathered two penalties by P.K. Subban in the final period. Colorado pulled Varlamov in the final two minutes and it led to a game-sealing goal by Forsberg into an empty net with 1:09 remaining.Landeskog gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead in the second, but Forsberg tied it three minutes later. Sissons put the Predators up for good when his shot clanged off the crossbar and dropped into the net.The Predators have at least one point in a franchise-best 14 consecutive road games.”We’re just working hard. We played last night, got in late, but everybody’s here, everybody’s working hard,” Forsberg said. ”It doesn’t have to be pretty. Get the job done.”It was a rare home loss for Colorado, which is 14-2-1 over its last 17 games at the Pepsi Center. Then again, the Predators have long given their Central Division rival fits. They’ve won 10 straight over the Avalanche Womens Anze Kopitar Jersey , including six in a row in Denver.”They might be one of the better teams in the league, no doubt,” Landeskog said. ”For us, it’s just a matter of learning from this one and moving on.”Sissons scored in the first period by sending in a shot off Varlamov’s shoulder. With just under a minute remaining in the period, MacKinnon fired in a shot to tie it at 1. It was his NHL-leading 60th point at home.MacKinnon’s goal was set up by a pass from Tyson Barrie, who ran his point streak to nine games and matched the longest by an Avalanche defenseman since the team moved to town in 1995-96.”You have to be happy with our effort,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said.Laviolette felt the same way, and took a measure of pride in becoming the first team to clinch. Now Authentic Derek Forbort Jersey Kids , about that muted celebration.”There’s no champagne in there,” he said. ”We’re moving on.”NOTES: Nashville improved to 7-1-1 in the second game of a back-to-back this season, while Colorado dropped to 3-7-0. … Avalanche D Erik Johnson (upper body) and Bernier skated Friday. … F Vladislav Kamenev (arm) will return to Denver this weekend after being loaned to San Antonio of the American Hockey League on a conditioning assignment. … Alpine ski racer Lindsey Vonn attended the game. She earned a bronze medal in the downhill at the Pyeongchang Olympics.UP NEXTPredators: Finish a three-game trip at Buffalo on Monday.Avalanche: Host the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday.— NEWARK, N.J. (AP) Cory Schneider is no longer the forgotten man on the New Jersey Devils.It’s amazing what a good game in the playoffs can do for a veteran goaltender relegated to a backup role over the past month because Keith Kinkaid had been playing so well in leading the Devils to their first playoff berth since 2012.The 32-year-old Schneider got his chance to play in a meaningful game when the Tampa Bay Lightning smoked the Devils in the opening two games of the first-round series, outscoring them 10-5.The Devils turned to Schneider for Game 3 on Monday night and he made the most of it. He stopped 34 shots in a 5-2 win that allowed New Jersey to cut the Lightning lead in the series to 2-1 with Game 4 scheduled for Wednesday night.It was his first win since late December and snapped a 0-10-2 personal skid for the likable Devils’ mainstay who was never the same in the final months of the season after sustaining hip and groin injuries in the latter part of January.”Your job in these situations is to come in and win,” Schneider said Tuesday after not taking part in a skate mostly for players who were scratched on Monday.”I have said all along, I haven’t tried to veer from what I have been doing. It hasn’t gone my way recently for a number of reasons we don’t have to get into. I just viewed the playoffs as a fresh start, a new season and it didn’t matter what happened before.”Schneider said there was no need to carry an extra baggage into the playoffs. He was just excited to have a chance to rise to the challenge. He did and so did his teammates in rallying for four third-period goals to get back into the series.Devils coach John Hynes would not say on Tuesday whether Schneider would start Youth Dion Phaneuf Jersey , but it seems a good bet he will.Hynes said going with Schneider – his No. 1 goaltender the past three seasons- in Game 3 was not a gamble. He had wanted to play him down the stretch of the regular season but Kinkaid was too hot, going 10-1-1 in the 12 games that led to the Devils clinching a playoff berth.”We felt as a group that Cory had worked hard, he looked good in practice and you could tell that he was itching to play,” Hynes said. ”It just seemed the way the series was going, let’s give him an opportunity to play. I think he was fresh and hungry.”Hynes said it was nice to see him play well because of how he handled not being the backup, a job that doesn’t attract the media to your locker.When Schneider came out on Tuesday, a crowd quickly surrounded him.Brian Boyle, who has more playoff experience than any player on the Devils roster http://www.kingsproshop.com/authentic-drew-doughty-jersey , said having Schneider play well will push Kinkaid.”There is a lot of internal competition,” Boyle said. ”Guys want to get out and play. Those two want the net. They want to play, and when you play, you want to play more. If you channel energies the right way it will bring position energies for your team.”The goal for the Devils and Schneider will be to repeat their efforts in Game 4.”That game is done with. It’s over,” Schneider said of Game 3. ”It doesn’t matter how good you feel about it afterward. It all depends on how you come out the next game. We know they are going to regroup and be ready for us so it should be a good battle.”—