Red Wings' Mrazek shuts out Predators

Photo by: John Russell/Getty Images

The Detroit Red Wings saw their game continue to get better despite the tremendous adversity. Petr Mrazek was the biggest reason for their 1-0 win over the Nashville Predators Saturday gaining his second straight victory at Bridgestone Arena. The 24-year-old netminder made 42 saves on the night getting his fifth win against the Predators and first shutout since Feb. 8, 2016.

The Red Wings victory over the Islanders at home Friday night boosted them back in the right direction picking up two important points. They snapped a long losing streak of games with many producing goals that led them to a win in the late stages of the game. Their visit to Nashville would test them on whether they could carry the consistency along with them. The Predators hosted Detroit in the second of a three game homestand spanning a week. They took care of the Oilers Thursday with Pekka Rinne gaining another shutout. He and his team hoped to be another team to shut down the Red Wings.

Three minutes went into the books with neither one recording a shot on goal. A cause for concern came for Riley Sheahan who was smashed by the Predators. The Detroit forward took his time getting off the ice with the uncertainty of returning to the bench. The Red Wings gained a chance to take the opening shot with a power play nearly scoring on a loose puck around the net. Though they didn’t record a goal on the man advantage, they made their presence known on offense with two shots during that time.

The pace began to flow well for them as they caught up later with Detroit gaining serious momentum. In the last two minutes of the first, a scoring chance from the far end worked out for the Red Wings and Mike Green. The veteran defenseman let the puck rip through heavy traffic beating Rinne in net for his tenth of the season. The final 90 minutes saw them keep the lead while being outshot 9-8 by the home team. The faceoff truly suffered with Nashville gaining 70 percent on the dot and used their physical strength to deliver big hits.

The second saw little action as the teams came out with an even stance on both sides. Detroit ran well with Nashville at the start but the offense began to increase for the Predators. During the final half of the period, Nashville increased their time with the puck and zone coverage to challenge the Detroit goaltender. The Czech remained impressive despite tremendous adversity to help his team stay alone on the scoreboard. With neither team gaining any advantage through 20 minutes, the Predators managed to record 16 shots holding the Red Wings to just seven.

The Red Wings showed their willingness to win on the road as they got their defense to a level that got to a level with their goaltender who continued making stops into the third period. Detroit made blocked shots against the Predators and were later rewarded with another power play. It became a 5 on 3 for Detroit in hopes to kill off a consistent drought that they carried along. The Predators worked hard to keep Detroit from scoring killing off the 70 seconds before getting back another play on ice.

Nothing came of the time with the man advantage but Detroit was still holding their one goal lead as the clock began to close in on the finish. Mrazek continued to make big saves against Nashville while Rinne on the other side did not want to give Detroit another goal in the remaining minutes. In a move to level the game before the end of regulation, the Predators pulled Rinne with two minutes left charging at Mrazek. The Czech and his team made the important stops and clearing of the puck that got them closer to capturing another regulation win.

A strong support with the puck in the Detroit zone saw them stop Nashville from setting up scoring chances in the final seconds. The final horn sounded victory for a second straight time giving Mrazek and the Red Wings a very positive winning streak. With things going smoothly for Detroit in their off and on road trip, they’ll take it back to the Joe where they’ll host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.