Predators Bite Struggling Blues

February 20, 1999 / 11:04 PM EST / AP

The Nashville Predators are loving life on the road.

Jamie Heward had his first career two-goal game and John Slaney scored his first of the season as the Predators beat the struggling St. Louis Blues 4-3 Saturday night.

Patric Kjellberg added his 10th goal and Greg Johnson had two assists for the expansion Predators, who have doubled their road victory total by going 4-1-1 in the last six games. They're 0-6-1 in their last seven at home.

"We don't want to know what we're doing right, right now," center Cliff Ronning said. "We don't have a clue and we don't want to know. We just want to keep playing hard."

Coach Barry Trotz isn't sure what's happening, either. The Predators tied Colorado on Friday night to end a six-game home losing streak.

"The writers told us we couldn't win on the road, we were homers. Now we can't win at home, so go figure."

Mike Eastwood had a goal and an assist and Pierre Turgeon got his 20th goal for the Blues, who are 1-3-1 with two games to go on a season-long seven-game homestand and dropped a game below .500 at 22-23-10. The Blues had won three of the first four against the Predators, outscoring them 17-9 and outshooting them 148-97.

On Thursday they had their second scoreless tie of the season and only fifth in team history against Florida. The Blues outshot the Predators 37-22 and had a 16-3 advantage in the third period. But they couldn't get anything past Tomas Vokoun in the third until Pascal Rheaume scored with 3.8 seconds left,

After the game, defenseman Al MacInnis stormed out of the dressing room while swearing about unnamed "idiot" teammates who failed to give a full effort.

Coach Joel Quenneville agreed that the Predators outworked his team, even though they were playing on consecutive days, and promised a hard practice on Sunday. His answers were much more clipped than usual.

"I don't feel good right now," Quenneville said. "I feel sour. We don't care where we win, we've got to win."

Heward, who leads Predators defensemen with 17 points, got his fifth and sixth goals, both on setups from Greg Johnson. He started the scoring on a power play at 2:45 of the first period and put the Predators ahead for good 3-2 when he beat Jamie McLennan from the right circle at 10:24 of the second.

Slaney made it 4-2 at 3:39 of the third on a drive from the point that appeared to have deflected off Blues defenseman Bryan Helmer.

Each team scored twice in the first period. Eastwood tied it with a wraparound at 6:42, Kjellberg ripped home a loose puck at 13:46 to put Nashville ahead again, and Turgeon tied it again 57 seconds from in front of the net off a feed from Pavol Demitra.

Blues defenseman and captain Chris Pronger missed his fourth game with a bruised left ankle. He may be out for a while longer, considering his limp. He took a slap shot off the ankle bone.

"These shoud be wins for us," Pronger said. "It's frustrating and you don't really know what to do."