The Nashville Predators had a hard enough time creating any shots for themselves Thursday.
The last thing they needed to do, therefore, was to give the St. Louis Blues a free one. Yet that is exactly what they did.
Blues center Patrik Berglund scored on a second-period penalty shot and the Predators were outshot 24-13 in a 3-0 defeat at St. Louis.
It was the first time Nashville was held scoreless since March 27, 2012 — also at St. Louis and the lowest shot total since it had 12 at Edmonton on Oct. 17, 2011, the fifth game of last season.
Mike Fisher registered the first shot of the contest, 12 seconds after the opening faceoff, but it was more than 16 minutes before the Predators (1-1-2) got another. In between the Blues got six to the Nashville net, the last of which was from T.J. Oshie and became the game’s first goal at 12:59 of the opening period.
The shots were 9-3 in favor of St. Louis after one period and 20-7 through two.
No Nashville player finished with more than two shots on goal.
Berglund, who had an assist on Oshie’s goal, made it 2-0 with his penalty shot after Fisher hooked him at 9:26 of the second period, and Vladimir Tarasenko closed out the scoring with a power play goal at 9:04 of the third period, his second goal in as many games against the Predators this season.
Nashville continues its seven-game road trip, which started Tuesday at Minnesota, on Saturday at Anaheim (9:30 p.m., Fox Sports-Tennessee).