"He's got an absolute cannon for a wrister," Ellis said of Neal. "It catches a lot of guys by surprise. I didn't really see the play, but it was a heck of a shot and it went top shelf. It's a good thing for him. He's been working hard and battling for us, and it's nice to see him back to his old self."
St. Louis made it interesting down the stretch when Joel Edmundson scored late, but Rinne finished the night with 32 saves in total and his seventh win of the postseason, tying a career high.
"We knew they were going to come, and we had to weather it a little bit," defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. "They were a little angry from their last performance, but I thought we handled it pretty well. Pekka stood tall in net. Everyone battled tonight, everyone worked hard, and we did a lot of really good things defensively."
The Predators now find themselves just one win away from the Western Conference Final for the second consecutive season. But as they've said all along, their accomplishments are minuscule to this point, compared to what they're really after.
"It's in our own hands, for sure," Rinne said. "Being up 3-1 now, I think we can control our destiny."
Ellis, Rinne Star Once More:
There isn't much Ryan Ellis can't do, and right now, he's doing all of it.
Like scoring a goal for the third consecutive games. Or recording a point for the seventh consecutive game. Or maybe sweeping a puck off the goal line to help make his goaltender look that much better.
Indeed, Ellis has been rewriting Nashville's postseason record book over the past few weeks, and if he is able to record a point in Game Five, he'll set a franchise mark with points in eight consecutive games.
And again, he's a defenseman.
"At both ends of the ice, he does everything for us," Laviolette said of Ellis. "He plays terrific defense, he sacrifices his body all the time to block shots and just really strong, strong defensive player for us. And then offensively, he's on a little bit of a roll right now, playing terrific in the offensive zone. He's getting the shot off, he's getting it on net, and it's finding the back of the net, a 200-foot game."
The goaltender behind Ellis isn't half bad either.
Pekka Rinne collected his seventh win of the postseason on Tuesday night in Game Four, the fifth time in these playoffs he's allowed one goal or less. Building off the lessons of season's past, Rinne continues to play some of the best hockey he ever had, and it couldn't come at a more opportune time.
"I think it was a really good experience last year, playing two seven-game series," Rinne said. "I think the hardest lesson that we all learned is that it's not going to be easy. It's extremely hard, every team is extremely dangerous, so when you have a chance to close these things out you have to really step on their throat."
