Predators hope to get streaky again to stave off elimination

The Nashville Predators? favorite slogan this season has been ?It?s Go Time.?

Now they must win or it?s go home time.

The San Jose Sharks come into Game 5 on Sunday night with a 3-1 lead, needing only a fourth straight victory to clinch this opening Western Conference series. That would put the fifth-seeded Sharks into the conference semifinals for a second straight season.

?We want to go in and try and finish it, but we know it?s a battle,? Sharks captain Patrick Marleau said. ?They?re going to be coming at us. This is always the toughest game to win in a series. We know that.?

A loss would end the Predators? second postseason appearance a game shorter than their first when they took the Detroit Red Wings to six games before bowing out in 2004.

And a loss would match the Predators? longest skid of the season and would be the third time this season with four straight losses. They have been equally streaky with victories, starting the season 8-0 and reeling off wins of four or more games five different times.

?For one reason or another, we?ve been a real streaky team this year,? Nashville forward Adam Hall said Saturday. ?It?s been that way with wins or losses. We look around this locker room, and we know that we have what it takes to win this series.?

Desperation is the dominant emotion for the Predators.

?We?ve got to look back at all the good things we have done this season and use all of those as positives for us for tomorrow,? Nashville right wing Steve Sullivan said. ?We don?t have a choice right now. We are facing elimination, we are a desperate hockey team. ?

They?re back home, hoping to draw off a crowd that helped them win an NHL-best 32 games in the regular season. A sold-out crowd helped the Predators win Game 1, but they haven?t been able to stay out of the penalty box since then.

Nashville has racked up 78 penalty minutes compared to 66 for the Sharks, and six 5-on-3s have helped San Jose take control of the series.

Coach Barry Trotz said it?s a matter of executing and timing. His Predators must be more disciplined Sunday night.

?You have to be aware of the situation around you. If you think there is a gray area, you just have to back off. The standard in the first round seems to be a little higher,? Trotz said.

San Jose center Mark Smith can agree with that.

?They?ve been calling it tight all series long. I?m just trying to keep my feet moving and do what I can do,? he said.

The Predators think they found the passion and intensity necessary in the postseason in the third period of Game 4. Even though they lost 5-4, they outshot San Jose 14-3 and outscored the Sharks 2-1 in that period.

Nashville captain Greg Johnson said they also must forecheck more in helping disrupt Marleau, whose six goals were an NHL-best this postseason going into Saturday, as well as Jonathan Cheechoo and Joe Thornton.

?We?ve got to win three in a row, and we?ve got to win at home. We?ve done that before,? Johnson said. ?It?s a tough task, but we?ve got Sunday and we?ll go on from there.?

That?s what has San Jose coach Ron Wilson worried.

?Any time you get to this point, there?s two things. One, you want to get the series over as quickly as possible in order to save energy, but you also understand the hardest game to win is always the clincher, the fourth game,? Wilson said.