The Nashville Predators failed to clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs when they were defeated by the St. Louis Blues, 4-1 at Scottrade Center on Sunday.
The Predators (40-28-11) can still clinch a spot on Sunday if the Los Angeles Kings lose to the Arizona Coyotes in any fashion.
St. Louis moved two points ahead of Nashville for third place in the Central Division.
The Blues (43-28-7) got second-period goals from Alexander Steen and David Perron to break a 1-1 tie, and Jake Allen made 35 saves to improve to 9-1-2 in his past 12 starts, allowing two or fewer goals in 10 of 12.
Perron had a goal and two assists, and Vladimir Tarasenko and Joel Edmundson also scored for St. Louis, which improved to 5-0-1 in its past six games at home.
Ryan Johansen scored for the Predators and Juuse Saros made 21 saves. Nashville, which has three games remaining, went 2-3-0 playing five games in seven days.
Tarasenko gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 5:22 of the first period, 19 seconds after a Nashville power play that included 1:04 of 5-on-3.
The Predators scored on a 5-on-3 in the first, with Johansen scoring 11:22 to tie the game at 1-1.
Steen put the Blues ahead 2-1 55 seconds into the second after a Perron pass, and Perron made it 3-1 at 6:47.
Edmundson made it 4-1 at 8:11 of the third period.
