Gabriel Bourque gets two to give Nashville Predators Game One over Detroit Red Wings 3-2 -NHL Update
Nashville Predators looked confident going into game one of the 2012 National Hockey League (NHL) Western Conference playoff quarterfinals against Detroit Red Wings. Gabriel Bourque emerged as the surprising messiah for Predators, scoring two goals for the
win, 3-2, Wednesday night, April 11, 2012, at the sold-out Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
Detroit has always been a hurdle for a majority of the teams in the Western Conference due to their experience and veteran line-up, but Nashville also seems changed this time around after they broke the first round barrier for the first time last year.
With over 17,000 fans chanting in favour of Nashville, players were bound to get confident.
"At first I was pretty nervous," Bourque said. "You see a lot of noise and all that stuff. It was pretty cool. But after a couple of shifts, you feel better on the ice."
Paul Gaustad kicked off the scoring at the 6:59 mark in the opening period followed by the equaliser from Henrik Zetterberg at 2:29 into the second on the power play with
Roman Josi out for cross checking.
Gabriel Bourque got the tie-breaker with a lucky tip in as Matt Halischuk had fired off the puck which hit the formers stick by an inch and with Jimmy Howard being covered, it went past him without even seeing it.
Bourque scored the game-winner in round three as he got added his second of the night while Tomas Holmstrom made it a one point game with less than three minutes remaining in regulation and on the power play.
For Detroit Red Wings head coach, Mike Babcock, this was a wakeup call for his team and they hope to get back at winning in the next game.
"Anytime you lose Game 1, especially when you're the road team, I think it's a great opportunity to win a game for sure," Babcock said. "Now we just have to get refocused and we've got to win a game in here."
Red Wings and Predators will be going head-to-head again in game two on Friday, April 13, in Nashville.
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