The Preds Come Out On Top Against Division Rival Detroit

Puck is behind Conklin but doesn't go in as it rebounds off the left pipe in the first period

In an absolutely thrilling game, the Preds defeat the Detroit Red Wings 3-2. This was definitely the loudest crowd we've had this season.This was a big improvement from the past few games.

The first goal came 9:29 into the first. Greg Zanon shot the puck right off the face, off from the point, blowing right past Ty Conklin. With 5:56 left, the Predator defense had a huge brain fart. They let Dan Cleary come in from the point right up the Dan Ellis' door step and put one "where Mama hides the cookies". We left this period tied at one.

At 13:24 into the period, with six seconds left on the power play, Rich Peverley passed right to Kevin Klein, who was right in the slot, and he just drilled it past Conklin for a 2-1 lead. With a little under two minutes left in the second, Erat made a nice feed from the Detroit trapezoid to Vern Fiddler right in front of Conklin, who just nailed one high for, what ended up being, the game winning goal. Coming out of the second period, the Preds led 3-1.

In this third period, the Predators really started throwing their weight around. 3:00 into the third period, Andreas Lilja faked a shot from the point and passed it to Mikael Samuelsson who slapped one, oddly enough, through Dan Ellis' five-hole. How does someone score on your five whole at a 90 degree angle? 3-2 ended up being the final score.

Dan Ellis has faced six 35 plus shot games in 11 starts against the Red Wings (credits to Jay Levin for that stat.) He played a tremendous game last night, shutting down Pavel Datsyuk on the breakaway attempt, and a lot of other quality chances.

We went one for three on our power play last night. We were generating prime scoring chances, rather than passing the puck around and getting one or two decent chances (if that!) We were perfect on the penalty kill against the number two ranked power play team.

First Catfish of the year!

The traditional catfish was thrown after the first goal tonight. That's something they haven't done at all this season. It's good to see that out there again. The Predators next game is in Edmonton on Sunday.

Jackson Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass