The pregame environment at Game 4 on Wednesday wasn’t as electric as it was Monday night, when the Pepsi Center was host to Colorado’s first Stanley Cup playoff game in four years.

It was wild Monday night, and the Avalanche used that energy to erupt for the game’s first four goals en route to victory.

It was relatively mild Wednesday, though — at least at the outset — and the Nashville Predators seized the opportunity.

The Presidents’ Trophy-winning Preds overwhelmed the Avs from the first drop of the puck in Game 4, scoring the first three goals before holding on late for a 3-2 victory that puts them on the brink of advancing to the Western Conference semifinals.

Nashville takes a 3-1 series lead to Game 5 on Friday on its home ice.

“I loved our third, there’s no question. But we need to find that urgency earlier,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Even after it was 3-2, we had to have three or four real good looks at the net.”

Colorado, which got its goals from Gabe Landeskog (power play) and Alex Kerfoot (rebound) in the third period, must pull off a huge upset to win at Bridgestone Arena to order to extend the series to a Game 6 Sunday in Denver.

“We had enough scoring chances to tie it. A couple bounces would have been nice,” Avs left wing Gabe Landeskog said. “We’re going to bring that intensity and that desperation with us Friday night. We want to get back here. We believe in one another. We know we can pull this off. Obviously, this one stings. But it’s a series. It’s not just one game.”

The Preds out-shot the Avs 8-0 to begin the game and, despite failing to score on the game’s first two power plays — including a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:20 — led 1-0 after the first period and 3-0 after the second. Colorado goalie Jonathan Bernier didn’t come out for the third and was replaced by Andrew Hammond because of what the team said is a lower-body injury.

Bernier stopped 23-of-26 shots but was beaten cleanly on wrist shots from right-shooting Nashville forwards Colton Sissons and Craig Smith in the second period.

Smith’s goal was a back-breaker and head-scratcher for the Avs. It came after a Nashville penalty killer tipped an Avalanche pass on the power play out of the zone — right to Smith’s stick in the neutral zone — and followed an odd sequence involving Preds forward Ryan Hartman. Smith was coming out of penalty box after serving a penalty for Hartman, who was assessed holding and roughing minors two minutes earlier in an altercation with the Avs’ Sven Andrighetto.

Hartman was whistled for holding, and furious about the call, he dropped his gloves and attacked Andrighetto, who might have speared Hartman in the groin area. Andrighetto was whistled for roughing but Colorado still got the power play. Related Articles Avalanche’s Cale Makar wins Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year

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When Hartman’s first penalty expired, Smith came out of the penalty box and scored to make it 3-0.

“Obviously, we’d like more out of the first 40 minutes but we showed a lot of resiliency and push-back in the third,” Kerfoot said. “The crowd was great. The fans were into it. Unfortunately we couldn’t get a third (goal).”

Landeskog scored a 5-on-3 power-play goal at 5:20 of the third period and Kerfoot jammed in a rebound behind goalie Pekka Rinne at 11:01. At that point, the crowd was equally as electric as in Game 3, when the Avs won 5-3.

In the first six minutes Wednesday, Nashville attempted 17 shots and put eight on Bernier. The Preds finally scored when first-line winger Filip Forsberg made a hard move to the net from the left wing in a creative play to beat defenseman Duncan Siemens, and then avoided Bernier’s poke check before depositing the puck into an open net.

The Avs had to feel good about trailing just 1-0 after the first period after thoroughly being outplayed.

Colorado finished 1-of-5 on the power play and is now 2-of-18 on the series.

“We had our chances on the power play,” defenseman Tyson Barrie said. “They took it to us in the first period. We responded, though. We gave ourselves a shot. But it’s a series, not a game. We got to go steal one in Nashville on Friday.”