Wild stifle Predators, hang on to third in Central

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Coach Bruce Boudreau got his 500th NHL win, and the Minnesota Wild hung on to third place in the Central Division with a 4-1 victory against the Nashville Predators at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.

Boudreau is the second fastest to 500 wins in League history (836 games) behind Scotty Bowman (825), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
"I didn't want anybody to make any fuss about any of that," Boudreau said. "We're in too tight of a Stanley Cup] Playoff race. ... Right now, let's focus on the game and the team."
***[WATCH: [All Predators vs. Wild highlights]*
Joel Eriksson Ek, Nino Niederreiter, Jason Zucker and Zach Parise scored for the Wild, who have won three of five games (3-1-1) and are 11-4-1 in the past 16.
Minnesota (42-24-8), which limited Nashville to 20 shots on goal, leads the Colorado Avalanche by two points and the St. Louis Blues by three for third in the division. The Wild have played one fewer game than the Avalanche and Blues.
Ryan Johansen scored for the Predators, who have lost two in a row after a 15-game point streak.
Nashville (48-16-10), which lost in regulation on the road for the first time in 16 games (12-1-3), is six points ahead of the Winnipeg Jets for first in the Central and tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning atop the League standings.
"Our first period I thought was solid," Johansen said. "I didn't think it was amazing or anything, but we did a lot of good things. Then we just got away from it. I'm sure we'll look at it in the morning, but this is the NHL, you've got to play 60 minutes to win hockey games."

Johansen gave the Predators a 1-0 lead at 8:37 of the first period when he scored on the rebound of his own shot.
Eriksson Ek tied it 1-1 at 2:50 of the second period with his second goal in as many games.
Niederreter scored off the rebound of a Jason Zucker shot on the power play at 13:45 to give the Wild a 2-1 lead.
Zucker scored his 30th goal to make it 3-1 at 1:29 of the third period, and Parise scored into an empty net with 1:41 remaining to make it 4-1.
After a skirmish resulted in coincidental minors against Nashville's Scott Hartnell (boarding) and Minnesota's Nick Seeler (roughing) at 15:24 of the third period, Predators coach Peter Laviolette was ejected at 15:28 for arguing with officials.
Devan Dubnyk made 19 saves for the Wild, and Pekka Rinne made 26 for the Predators.
"At the end of the day, we have to take it game by game," Niederreiter said. "We aren't in the postseason yet, so we've just got to focus on each and every game."

Goal of the game

Eriksson Ek's goal at 2:50 of the second period.

Save of the game

Dubnyk stopping Colton Sissons at 1:01 of the second period.

Highlight of the game

Niederreiter's goal at 13:45 of the second.

They said it

"We'll use [this loss] as some motivation here to play with some aggression going into tomorrow's game [against the Winnipeg Jets]. We've got to get back to our winning ways. We're looking forward tomorrow to dropping the puck." -- Predators forward Ryan Johansen
"We know what we are. When we have everybody going and playing the way we know we can, we can compete against anybody. It was a big one tonight. … Obviously, we know what the standings look like. Colorado won earlier. It's tight. It's going to continue to be a dogfight here the last eight [games], so we'll follow it up hopefully with a big win tomorrow [against the Boston Bruins]." -- Wild forward Eric Staal

Need to know

Predators defenseman Yannick Weber left the game at 6:48 of the first period after he was hit by Marcus Foligno, and forward Austin Watson did not play in the third period. There was not an update on either player's injury. … Predators forward Filip Forsberg has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in 12 games after he had an assist on Johansen's goal. …Wild forward Charlie Coyle had his point streak end at seven games. … Minnesota, which has 57 points at home (25-6-7), second in the NHL behind the Jets (58), has at least a point in 28 of its past 31 home games (22-3-6). ... Staal has 29 points (19 goals, 10 assists) in the past 24 games.

What's next

Predators: At the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; SN360, SNE, SNO, SNP, FS-TN, NHL.TV)
Wild:Host the Boston Bruins on Sunday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV)