In Detroit, a scoreless affair through two periods ended with two goals from the Nashville Predators in a 2-0 win over Red Wings on Tuesday night.
Filip Forsberg broke the ice for the all the offense the game would need.
Pekka Rinne made 24 saves to get the shutout.
“I’ve been fortunate enough for most of my career to be a No. 1 goalie,” Rinne said. “I try to prepare the same way; it doesn’t matter what the situation this year was. I didn’t really have too many expectations I guess, but at the same time, you always want to play. It’s a healthy competition. I consider myself lucky to play with Juuse. He’s coming to his prime, and obviously I’m in a different situation. But I love to compete.
“I’ve said it earlier, who knows if this is my last year. I’m just trying really to take it all in and give everything I have. It’s been fun lately, getting to play a little bit more.”
Both goals for Nashville came off the power-play with Eeli Tolvanen potting the second marker.
“I thought this was a great game,” Tolvanen said. “We worked hard for all three periods, our power play was good, the penalty killers did their job and [Rinne] was a wall.”
Nashville improved to 8-10-0.
“It’s nice to see us string some games together where we play more to the identity we want,” Nashville head coach John Hynes said. “That’s something we can build on in practice and get ready for the next game.”
Detroit dropped to 5-13-3.
“I thought our battle level was about 80 percent, and if we’re not close to 100 percent, we’re not giving ourselves chances to win games,” Detroit head coach Jeff Blashill said. “There are teams in this league that can be at 80 or 85 percent and win games because they score so easily. We’re not that kind of team.”
Jonathan Bernier made 31 saves in the loss, and is still waiting for the offense to show up with some support.
“In this league, it is so important to score goals on the power play because it is so hard to score 5-on-5,” the Red Wings’ Dylan Larkin said. “We took a couple penalties in the third period and they scored, but you can’t win hockey games without generating offense. We have to find ways to score goals.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.