NHL Playoff Schedule 2016: Round-by-Round Bracket Info and Guide

The Nashville Predators got up off the deck Monday night and extended their first-round playoff series against the Pacific Division champion Anaheim Ducks to a seventh game when they registered their first home win of the postseason.

The Predators picked up a 3-1 victory at Bridgestone Arena, as they played air-tight defense and scored a couple of timely goals before defenseman Shea Weber ended matters with an empty-netter in the final seconds. 

Mattias Ekholm and James Neal scored in the second period to give the Predators a 2-0 lead, and Ryan Kesler scored in the final seconds of that stanza to put the Ducks on the board. Pekka Rinne made the goals stand up by stopping 26 of 27 shots. 

The pressure will be on the Ducks to close out the series at home, while the Preds have new life and an opportunity to get to the second round. 

"It's awesome. Looking forward to it," Weber told NHL.com's Robby Stanley. "You grow up with playing these street-hockey games, Game 7s, and you dream of it, so it's going to be a good time."

Jeff Roberson/Associated Press/Associated Press

The series between the Predators and the Ducks is the only first-round series that has not been decided. The St. Louis Blues refused to let the Chicago Blackhawks continue their postseason dominance as they used a third-period goal by Troy Brouwer to defeat the defending champions 3-2.

The win ended a streak of three straight first-round losses by the Blues, and there was palpable relief in the St. Louis locker room after the game. The Blues had led the series 3-1, but Chicago squared the series by winning Games 5 and 6.

"I'm sure leaving Game 6, they probably thought they had us cracked," head coach Ken Hitchcock told the media after the game. "They pushed us back hard and we had no answer for Game 6. We came back and had an answer tonight."

While the Preds and the Ducks still have to decide the outcome of their series, seven other spots in the second round have been secured.

The full schedule for that round has not been released yet by the NHL, but the series between the New York Islanders and the Tampa Bay Lightning will get underway Wednesday night at Tampa's Amalie Arena at 7 p.m. (ET).

The other second-round series will feature the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals, the Dallas Stars and the Blues, and the San Jose Sharks meeting the survivor of the Anaheim-Nashville series.

The winners of the second-round series will meet in the Eastern and Western Conference Finals, and the survivors of those series will meet in the Stanley Cup Final in early June.

Team	Odds
Anaheim Ducks	+900
Dallas Stars	+500
Nashville Predators	+2,200
New York Islanders	+1,500
Pittsburgh Penguins	+400
San Jose Sharks	+700
St. Louis Blues	+550
Tampa Bay Lightning	+1,225
Washington Capitals	+380

The Capitals, who won the Presidents' Trophy after putting together a stellar regular season, remain the favorites to win the Stanley Cup. They are plus-380 to bring home the championship, according to Odds Shark, after beating the Philadelphia Flyers in a tough six-game series.

The Penguins may be the most dangerous opponent the Capitals will see during the postseason. The Pens dominated the New York Rangers by winning their first-round series in five games. They are the second choice to hoist the Stanley Cup at plus-400. Dallas is the top-rated Western Conference team at this point at plus-500.

The series between the Capitals and the Penguins features a renewal of the rivalry between Alex Ovechkin of Washington and Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby. Ovechkin and Crosby were the top draft picks in the NHL in 2004 and 2005, respectively, and they have been two of the dominant players in the league since the 2005-06 season.

Crosby (36 goals and 49 assists in 2015-16) and the Penguins found their stride in the final weeks of the regular season. The Pens won 14 of their final 16 regular-season games as they put their impressive team speed to good use, played excellent defense and started filling up the net.

Ovechkin (50 goals and 21 assists this season) and the Capitals dominated the regular season from the start, but they appeared to ease off the gas pedal in the final games of the regular season. After racing to a 3-0 lead over the Flyers, they struggled to score goals in the series and lost two straight games before closing out Philadelphia with a 1-0 victory Sunday.

The Stars and the Blues battled for the Central Division lead all season long before Dallas emerged with the title on the final weekend of the regular season. Dallas defeated the Minnesota Wild in six games and is led by an explosive offense, but the club has had some inconsistencies on defense and in goal. 

Now that the Blues have put their first-round woes behind them, they may be ready to play a loose and relaxed style that could cause problems for their opponents.

The Sharks may be rusty when they finally take the ice again. They beat the Los Angeles Kings in five games and have not played since April 22. However, Joe Pavelski (five goals), Brent Burns (eight points) and goalie Martin Jones (2.18 goals-against average) were sharp in the first round, and the Sharks may be ready for a long postseason run.