Ullmark, Bruins shut out Predators, extend lead in Atlantic

NASHVILLE -- Linus Ullmark made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season for the Boston Bruins in a 3-0 win against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday.

David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha each had a goal and an assist for the Bruins (44-17-15), who have won three of four.

Boston moved four points ahead of the Florida Panthers, who lost 5-3 at the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday, for first in the Atlantic Division.

“Spectacular,” Boston coach Jim Montgomery said of Ullmark’s performance. “You know, I thought their goalie was really good, too. But our goalie was like an onslaught. He had to be down in his crouch, he had to be finding pucks through a lot of traffic and a lot of great plays that they were able to make at times. He made some saves look easy.”

Juuse Saros made 29 saves for the Predators (43-28-4), who have lost three consecutive games after going 16-0-2 in their previous 18.

Nashville remained three points ahead of the Los Angeles Kings for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

“I thought it was a great hockey game,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “I thought it was a playoff-type game. I thought we went toe-to-toe with a really good hockey team. I actually thought we got better as the game got on. I really liked our second and third periods where I thought we were taking over the game. We put ourselves in great position for somebody to make a play. Unfortunately, we made a play going the wrong way.”

Charlie Coyle gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 13:18 of the third period, beating Saros on a backhand-to-forehand deke on a short-handed breakaway. The play started with Ullmark getting the puck up the ice to Brad Marchand, who found Coyle entering the zone.

“Those are playoff-type games where it’s 0-0 or low scoring or whatever it is,” Coyle said. “It’s kind of a battle to see what team will break first. That’s stuff we kind of talk about in between periods and on the bench. There’s always things you can fine-tune throughout the game, and we addressed those. But our overall game, you don’t want to stray away from that. We figured we’d get our opportunities if we just stuck to it.”

Zacha gave the Bruins a 2-0 lead at 17:18, finishing a tic-tac-toe passing play with Pastrnak and Danton Heinen on the rush.

“We played a full 60 minutes and showed we don’t get frustrated easily,” Ullmark said. “We kept sticking with it. We did a great job penalty killing as well, and obviously a couple of clutch goals from [Coyle and Zacha]. That was really nice.”

Pastrnak scored an empty-net goal at 18:36 for the 3-0 final.

The Predators went 0-for-4 on the power play.

“We couldn’t really set up,” Nashville captain Roman Josi said. “It felt like we never really got set. The entries we kind of got in, but we couldn’t get set. They pressure pretty hard, but we needed to make some plays just to get set and couldn’t really do that tonight.”

NOTES: Bruins forward Justin Brazeau left in the first period with an upper-body injury. Montgomery said there will be more information on the length of his injury in the coming days. … Pastrnak had his 35th multipoint game of the season, the most by a Bruins player since Adam Oates (46) in 1992-93. … The Predators lost in regulation at home for the first time since Feb. 15 (a 9-2 loss to the Dallas Stars). … Predators defenseman Alexandre Carrier returned to the lineup after missing three games because of an upper-body injury. He was minus-1 in 19:22 of ice time.