Red Wings Dominate Predators in 4-1 Win in Detroit

The Detroit Red Wings played a near perfect home game as they had few mistakes and they bested the slumping Nashville Predators 4-1on Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena.

For the Predators, it was their fourth loss in a row and it appears they may have lost Frankie Bouillon, who left late in the second period with a "lower body injury." Roman Josi made his NHL debut as a seventh defenseman, skating 15 shifts in 12:20 of ice time.

The Red Wings got two goals from Valtteri Filppula and single goals from Dan Cleary and Henrik Zetterberg. The Predators lone goal came from Jack Hillen.

Jimmy Howard started his 16th game in a row and stopped 18 of 19 Preds shots. Pekka Rinne was hung out to dry as he gave up four goals on 37 Wings shots.

The Predators couldn't leave town quick enough as the left for Edmonton to prepare for Monday's game with the Oilers.

Make the jump for more details from the game...


Comments from the Couch...

First Period...

The Predators make the rare choice to start seven defensmen that included the NHL debut of Roman Josi. Brian McGrattan and Blake Geoffrion were healthy scratches.

Kevin Klein drew a hooking penalty from Johan Franzen at 3:28. The Preds managed a two of their three first period shots but no goals during the man-advantage.

At 12:19, Mike Fisher was called for hooking and definitely goth his money's worth in tripping Justin Abdelkater.  At 13:23 Filppula got a power-play goal after Rinne had stopped a celebrating Todd Bertuzzi who thought he had scored on the prior shot.

At 14:27 the officials waived off a Predators goal as Brad Stuart cleared out a puck that was on the line in the Red Wings net behind Howard that was sent there by Matt Halischuk.

Patric Hornqvist was called for tripping Franzen at 18:13. The Wings got off a pair of shots and will carry over 13 seconds of power play into the next period.

1st Period	Goals	Shots	Corsi	PIMs	Faceoffs
Predators	0	3	7	2-4:00	10-10 50%
Red Wings	1	14	26	1-2:00	10-10 50%

Second Period...

Zetterberg scored at 1:31 when he got Rinne to go down early and patiently waited to put the shot high in the net over the goalie to give the Wings a 2-0 lead.

Things turned grim for the Predators at 8:34 when Filppula got one past Rinne to put the Wings up 3-0. The original scoring gave the goal to Hudler.

Frankie Bouillon's last shift was at 15:43 in the period as it was announced that he would not return due to a lower body injury.

2nd Period	Goals	Shots	Corsi	PIMs	Faceoffs
Predators	0	5	11	0-0:00	5-3  62%
Red Wings	2	11	18	0-0:00	3-5  38%

Third Period...

Things completely collapsed for the Predators when Darren Helm fed the puck to Cleary who froze Rinne to make it 4-0 Wings.

At 5:34, Hillen broke up the Howard shut-out when Colin Wilson made a perfect pass to Hillen in the slot to give him his first goal as a Predator and cut the lead to 4-1.

The Wings got a bit sloppy with penalties to Ian White for cross-checking Fisher at 13:20 and Filppula for tripping Josi at 15:58.

At 2:14, on the power play, Josi fired a one-timer from Jon Blum and caught Patrick Eaves in the ear that required a stretcher to be brought onto the ice.

3rd  Period	Goals	Shots	Corsi	PIMs	Faceoffs
Predators	1	11	15	0-0:00	7-9  65%
Red Wings	1	12	16	2-4:00	9-7  35%

Final	Goals	Shots	Corsi	PIMs	Faceoffs
Predators	1	19	33	2-4:00	22-22  44%
Red Wings	4	378	60	3-6:00	22-22  56%

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass