Goals from players who hadn’t yet made a statement this season did so leading to a third straight victory for the Red Wings. They had both sides of the game working that led to a 5-3 win over the Nashville Predators at Joe Louis Arena Friday night.
The Red Wings have Jimmy Howard to thank for their two game winning streak. The veteran goaltender deal with plenty of challenges against the New York Rangers that led to their 2-1 victory at Madison Square Garden Wednesday. His 32 saves earned him his first win and plenty more games in the future.
Coach Jeff Blashill gave Howard the night off putting Petr Mrazek back in net to face a slightly new Predators team that he’s 3-0 against. P.K. Subban joined the team during the offseason in a trade for former captain Shea Weber. With his powerful defensive power, it was likely that he would bring together a top line to challenge Detroit.
The Red Wings took off on shots to the net after Mrazek made two big saves to start the first period. By the time five minutes went into the books, Detroit had shot seven times on net while holding Nashville to three. They gained more time with the puck in the Detroit zone hoping to be first to score in the game.
Nashville began to even with the Red Wings on scoring chances but were still unable to put one behind Mrazek. The same was said for Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne whose large stature allowed very little chance for Detroit to score on the net. At the end of 20 minutes, both teams shot 15 times with not one going in for a game leading goal. The Red Wings fared better on the faceoff but took plenty more hits than they delivered to Nashville.
The stalemate continued into the second period for the first three and a half minutes. A holding call to Filip Forsberg allowed the Red Wings a second power play chance to change the pace of things. It came at the hands of rookie Ryan Sproul who fired a shot that went off Justin Abdelkader to score one for Detroit.
Nashville coach Peter Laviolette challenged the call that Abdelkader interfered with Rinne in net. The video showed that no interference occurred on the play and awarded the goal to the Red Wings. Sproul picked up his first career point while Abdelkader got credit for his first of the season.
The Predators gave Detroit another man advantage but did work killing it to prevent the Red Wings from running away. With seven minutes left, Nashville got their chance and nearly let it get out of hand. Detroit caught hold of the puck while shorthanded where Luke Glendening went in alone nearly beating Rinne.
The Red Wings took 50 seconds of the man advantage away from them but soon found themselves two men down for the remainder of the first penalty. It was enough for them to get a heavy advantage where Subban made Detroit pay. He delivered a centering drive that went five whole on Mrazek giving him his second of the season and both on power plays.
A second power play goal ended the penalties but gave Nashville a 2-1 lead. It came 18 seconds later on a bad rebound that Mrazek couldn’t secure that Mike Ribeiro got hold of to easily put in. The Red Wings had to quickly recover from their slip up and gained a chance to do so with another power play for them. Though they didn’t convert in the two-minute penalty, Detroit got heavily offensive in front of Rinne with Glendening taking his scoring chances on the net minder.
His line got into the fun until a shot from Drew Miller put their troubles in the rear mirror with the Michigan native picking up his second of the year on a shot hitting the top shelf. The late charge to level back on the scoreboard turned into a 19-10 lead on shots to the net in the second period. With just 20 minutes left in regulation, it was going to be a sure fight to the finish between the two former Central Division rivals.
Detroit took the first big step in the third period scoring 1:10 where Tomas Tatar put some great stick work between the Nashville defense. He lined the puck up firing an accurate shot flying over the stick side leg pad of Rinne for his first of the season. Dylan Larkin continued to have trouble on offense but his fighting was more than active on the night. After taking a high stick from Yannick Weber, he took it to heart going after him taking some shots to Weber’s head. The fans lost their minds in the stands cheering the 20-year-old who took it to the Predators defenseman.
“After that high stick I reacted to it and he crossed checked me, it just happened,” Larkin said to the media after the game. “It’s something I don’t really want to do but its my first every fight.”
Larkin’s fight helped energize the Red Wings to a higher degree of performance and proved it midway through the period. Gustav Nyquist made it 4-2 on a bad turnover from Nashville going quick on Rinne to get his first. The Predators were doing everything to get the best of Detroit with Subban getting rough with Abdelkader. The Detroit forward was ready to take on Subban but the Nashville defenseman denied him the pleasure sending boos down to the ice.
The Predators responded with a big goal from new captain Mike Fisher who drove one through traffic getting the puck through the leg of Mrazek putting them down by one with four minutes left. A big mistake by Nashville cost them with two minutes left. A pair of unnecessary penalties allowed the Red Wings to play 5 on 3 for the remainder of the game. They more than took the leverage and played out all the time keeping the puck away.
Rinne left the ice putting a fourth man on for Nashville, but it wasn’t enough in the end. Detroit kept the puck in their zone before a chance to push came with 30 seconds on the clock. Darren Helm picked up his third of the season getting one in the empty net. The last 22 seconds came to a finish for Detroit clinching their third victory in a row and Mrazek’s third win of the season.
He made 30 saves on the night for a .909 save percentage and plenty to be proud of with his team taking the puck to the net quite a bit. They outshot Nashville 43-33 in regulation despite being two for seven on the power play. “It’s nice to score one and good to see the other guys get one too but most importantly getting two big points for us and keep it rolling,” Nyquist said to Fox Sports Detroit reporter Trevor Thompson. They’ll have time to work that out when they host the San Jose Sharks Saturday night.
Photo by: Dave Reginek/Getty Images
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