Nashville hands Blues 11th straight defeat

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Scott Hartnell scored twice in the second period to help the Nashville Predators beat the slumping St. Louis Blues 3-1 on Saturday night for their third straight victory.

The Blues are winless in their last 11 games.

Hartnell tied it on a power play 58 seconds into the second period, and gave the Predators the lead with a short-handed goal at 7:59. The goal came 3 seconds after a St. Louis penalty expired, putting the Blues on the power play.

Hartnell took a pass from Danny Markov just outside the St. Louis blue line, skated unopposed and beat goalie Curtis Sanford with a backhand shot.

The Predators added a goal midway through the third period, with Kimmo Timonen deflecting Paul Kariya's shot through traffic over Sanford's stick hand.

St. Louis opened the scoring in the first period. Predators goalie Tomas Vokoun made a pad save on a drive by Dennis Wideman, but Mike Sillinger scored off the rebound.

Vokoun made 26 saves for his 10th of the season.