Predators Flip the Switch vs. Stars: 3 Reasons they Got Revenge in Dallas

Chalk this up as one of the best wins of the Andrew Brunette era after the Nashville Predators went into Dallas on Saturday with a 4-3 victory.

This game went back and forth and displayed two evenly-matched division rivals. It felt like a playoff atmosphere, and the Predators came in on a mission to rectify Thursday's very dissappointing effort against the Calgary Flames.

It's been a theme all season that the Predators can't hold leads and tend to take periods off to allow momentum to swing back to the opponent, and it looked like they were in danger of letting that happen again when the Stars tied it late in the 2nd period.

Going into the 3rd period, the Stars had a 55% chance of winning according to MoneyPuck. The momentum was on the side of the Stars at home and the Predators had to bring a massive response in the final frame.

Let's get to my three reasons why the Predators were able to secure this victory to move their season record to 22-16-1 and only four points behind Dallas for third place in the Central Division.

Organized Defensive Pressure from Predators

We have to start with the complete 180 shift in defensive structure by the Predators from Thursday to Saturday. Against Calgary in the 6-3 loss the Predators surrendered 22 High Danger chances, and in this one they slightly improved by only giving up 18. Still not great, but improvement at least.

One of the most noticeable stats that sticks out from this game is blocked shots. Both teams did a superb job affecting shooting lanes and protecting their goaltenders. One goaltender faired better than the other, but we'll get to that later.

Dante Fabbro and Ryan McDonagh led the way in blocked shots with four each. McDonagh in particular really showed off his timeliness and willingness to put himself in harm's way to block Dallas' shots.

When the Stars emptied their net with around two minutes remaining, nightmares of the December 23rd loss came back. The Predators as a team had to stay organized in their defensive zone to get this one over the finish line.

Even with better defensive structure, the Stars still managed to finish with 3.8 Expected Goals, while the Predators finished with just 2 Expected Goals. Which brings us to the next reason for the win.

Bad Goaltending for Dallas, Clutch Goaltending for Predators

A tale of two very different goalie performances with both teams going with their backups. Scott Wedgewood for Dallas never looked comfortable right from the opening faceoff and his first shot faced, while Kevin Lankinen had to come up with some difficult saves mostly in the 2nd period.

Lankinen also had to deny a penalty shot early in the 2nd period to keep the Stars off the board. He would finish with a positive Goals Saved Above Expected at 0.8.

The save percentage Lankinen finishes with doesn't really do him justice for how great he was in clutch moments. Stopping the penalty shot was huge and the ultimate x-factor in the final score, but there were other moments when he had to scramble all over the crease to keep the puck out.

The Stars didn't stop coming at the Predators. They're one of the best, if not the best, teams in the NHL at making comebacks and winning one-goal games. You can never count the Stars out.

Wedgewood only faced 22 shots but surrendered four goals. He only faced one High Danger shot attempt from Nashville while Lankinen faced six High Danger shot attempts from Dallas.

Lankinen moves his season record to 5-3-0 while also appearing in four other games in relief duty for Juuse Saros. The questions keep swirling on if Brunette should even out the starts more between Lankinen and a streaky Saros.