Detroit Red Wings stay hot with fifth consecutive win over Nashville Predators 4-1 -NHL Update
Detroit continued to fly high a day after they snapped the Boston Bruins 10 game winning streak by dominating Nashville as the Red Wings toppled the Predators, 4-1, on Saturday night, November 26, 2011, for their fifth straight win of the 2011-2012 National
Hockey League (NHL) regular season at the sold-out Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan, United States.
Nashville on the other hand, had their woes extended as they lost their fourth straight, a slump which started with a loss by the Columbus Blue Jackets in overtime, which killed their momentum altogether.
"Playing Boston, a high-end team, we knew that was going to be a grind, but I thought our guys responded," Detroit Red Wings coach, Mike Babcock, said. "Our upper-echelon players (on Friday) were fantastic. Today we got more depth from everybody. Our whole
team played better."
Valtteri Filppula kicked off the scoring a little over midway through the first period for his sixth of the regular season on a power play opportunity as Nashville’s, Mike Fisher, was booked for tripping with a minor penalty.
Henrik Zetterberg and Filppula added two more straight in the second period nearly seven minutes apart to give the Red Wings a commanding, 3-0, lead entering the final 20 minutes of game play without having to take advantage of any power play chance.
Daniel Cleary added Detroit’s last at the 4:03 mark of the third period, which obviously secured the match as Nashville could not find a spot past the Red Wings focused goalie, Jimmy Howard, to put the puck.
Jack Hillen fired off his first of the season and finally put the Predators up on the scoreboard nearly a minute after Cleary, but it was not enough to allow the Nashville team to come up with more as the period progressed and eventually came to an end.
"As of late, we've been playing pretty well," said Filppula, who had his first multi-goal game of the season. "If we keep playing like this, I think we have a good chance to win games."
Nashville has the next road game in Edmonton against the Oilers on Monday while Detroit will be hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday.
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