DETROIT, Michigan -- Valtteri Filppula scored two goals and added an assist Saturday night, leading the Detroit Red Wings to a 4-1 win over the Nashville Predators.
Filppula opened the game's scoring with 6:37 remaining in the first period, lifting a backhander from an acute angle over sprawled Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne after a Todd Bertuzzi chance bounced off the post.
Henrik Zetterberg made it 2-0 just 1:31 into the second period. Zetterberg picked drifted backwards from in close to Rinne, outwaiting him before firing a shot from the left faceoff circle into the top of the net.
At 8:34 of the period, Filppula's second put the Red Wings up by three. Jakub Kindl threw a shot towards the net that was deflected by both Jiri Hudler and Filppula to get past Rinne.
Danny Cleary finished off Detroit's scoring at 4:03 of the third period. Darren Helm stole the puck from Mike Fisher as the Predators attempted to clear their zone, then sent a pass to Cleary in the right faceoff circle for a one-timer past Rinne.
Nashville's lone goal came 1:31 later, when Jack Hillen snuck in behind Helm and Jonathan Ericsson in the slot to take a pass from Colin Wilson and tip it past Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard.
Howard, making his fifteenth consecutive start, needed to make only 18 saves on 19 shots. Detroit held Nashville to only eight shots in the game's first forty minutes.
Rinne made 33 saves on the Red Wings' 37 shots.
Filppula's first goal was the only power play tally of the night. Detroit had two chances with the extra attacker while Nashville had three,
After three games in four nights, the Red Wings are off until Wednesday when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Notes: Detroit forward Patrick Eaves left the game late in the third period after taking a Roman Josi shot to the side of his head. He was taken to the Detroit Medical Center for observation, where he is expected to be held overnight... Cory Emmerton, Fabian Brunnstrom and Mike Commodore were the Red Wings' healthy scratches.
Just over 24 hours after downing the defending champs in a shootout, the Red Wings are back at it, hosting the Nashville Predators.
Jimmy Howard gets his fifteenth consecutive start for the Wings tonight. He's been red hot but I can't believe this doesn't say something about backup Ty Conklin's place on the team right now.
Patrick Eaves, who's also had a hard time getting into the lineup, will swap in for Cory Emmerton. Eaves will play on the third line with Justin Abdelkader dropping to Emmerton's spot centering the fourth line.
No other lineup changes are expected.
Game time is 7:00. FSD has the TV.
Made the switch from 4G to Comcast and what a helluva difference in livestream quality!
Not a bad kill with another man without his stick. Could have been very bad.
Hell of a shift from the Datsyuk line. Moving the puck so well.
2 pretty obvious hooks by the kitties missed there...
Bert and Flipper?
Good on Fil for sticking with the play after Bert thought he'd scored. Very nice shot from the odd angle.
Brad Stuart giving Jimmy some help there.
Good heads up by Stewie...
Bad feeling about the fact that the Wings dominated for a period and only have a one-goal lead.
Z!!!
Great patience by Zetterberg. He needs to get going.
Can't really blame Rinne too much there, deflected at least twice on the way through.
Bad feeling about the fact that the Wings dominated for a period and only have a one-goal lead.
You were saying something about not dominating?
Looks like Fliper's deflection was just incidental. Didn't even know where his stick was.
Eight shots through two periods for Nashville. Insane. But somehow I still have a bad feeling about this, "only" up by three.
Well, the Wings haven't showed tired legs yet (knock, knock...) for playing yesterday. That's my worry. And if you're thinking trashville is one of those "pesky" teams for Detroit, I'd say you're dead on. Bad things do seem to happen more with trashville than most other teams.
Clears!!!
Making the Preds look a bit stupid there. Nice shot but great play by Helm to make it happen.
Less worried about the Preds coming back now, more worried about dirty play. I'll be happy when this one is over.
And then that happens. Damn.
Helm doesn't finish. No one is surprised.
Right in the ear. Ouch. Hope Eaves is okay.
G* dman it all! At least Eaves is concious. Man did that look scary-ugly...
Datsyuk didn't get a point but man was he all over the ice tonight.
Valtteri Filppula
Credit: Clark Rasmussen
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