Red Wings top Predators, end six-game losing streak

DETROIT --Dylan Larkin scored with 26 seconds remaining in overtime, and the Detroit Red Wings ended a six-game losing streak with a 4-3 win against the Nashville Predators at Little Caesars Arena on Friday.

"That's a huge win for us," Larkin said. "We had a terrible power play earlier in the overtime, and I really wanted to get out there again and make something happen."
Larkin scored with a backhand for his fourth overtime goal of the season less than 30 seconds after Andreas Athanasiou hit the crossbar.
WATCH: [All Predators vs. Red Wings highlights]
"Overtime is a great opportunity for offensive speed, so it is made for players like myself, Andreas and [Gustav Nyquist]," Larkin said. "We know we can get out there and make things happen with our speed."

P.K. Subban, Ryan Johansen and Craig Smith scored for the Predators (24-15-3), who have lost seven of their past nine games (2-5-2). Pekka Rinne made 35 saves.
"We were awful from start to finish," Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. "Our goaltender was fantastic and we had three or four guys who showed up to play, but we had 15 who didn't and that's never going to work in this league."
Athanasiou, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Thomas Vanek, playing in his 1,000th NHL game, scored for Detroit (16-20-7), which had been 0-4-2 in its past six games.

"This was great," Vanek said. "I was a kid in Austria dreaming about playing one game in the NHL, and now I've got a thousand, I get a goal and we win. I've got a lot of friends and family here. It was perfect."
Jimmy Howard made 27 saves.
"I thought we played to win all night," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "There have been some games we could have won in this streak, but this was a game we should have won. We were the better team all night."
Subban made it 1-0 with 2:24 remaining in the first period with a long wrist shot from the right side.
"Even when we got the lead, we knew we weren't playing well," Johansen said. "We know we are capable of playing very good hockey -- we have proven that in the past -- but we got off to a bad start and that set the tone for the whole night."

Smith made it 2-0 at 3:01 of the second period, shooting a rebound into the roof of the net.
Athanasiou beat Nashville defenseman Dan Hamhuis down the ice and flipped a backhand over Rinne to pull Detroit within 2-1 at 4:24.
Vanek made it 2-2 at 13:35, knocking home a rebound.
"We were looking for him all night," Larkin said. "It gave me chills to see him score a goal in front of his family to help us win his 1,000th game."
Anthony Bitetto appeared to give the Predators the lead at 14:45, but the goal was overturned for goaltender interference.
"You can't say that cost us the momentum, because we had zero momentum in that hockey game," Laviolette said. "Detroit had any momentum there was tonight."
Bertuzzi gave the Red Wings a 3-2 lead at 11:57 of the third period, but Johansen tied it 3-3 with 1:16 remaining.

They said it

"There isn't one thing we need to fix, because it has been something different every night. We have different game plans for every team, but we're not following them. Pekka was the only reason we even had a chance tonight." -- Predators forward Ryan Johansen

"[Nyquist] has great vision, so I knew there was a chance he was going to make some kind of fantastic pass. I was just going hard to the net and trying to be ready no matter what he did." -- Red Wings forward Tyler Bertuzzi on his third-period goal, set up by a backhand feed from Nyquist

Need to know

Nashville forward Miikka Salomaki left in the second period with an undisclosed injury. There was no update after the game. … Johansen has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past three games. … Forward Phillip Di Giuseppe made his Predators debut after being claimed on waivers from the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday. He was called for goaltender interference on Bitetto's disallowed goal. … Vanek is the fourth Red Wings player to score in his 1,000th game, joining Henrik Zetterberg (2017), Ivan Boldirev (1984) and Dean Prentice (1968).

What's next

Predators: At the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SN360, CITY, SNE, TVAS, FS-TN, NHL.TV)
Red Wings: Host the Washington Capitals on Sunday (5 p.m. ET; NHLN, FS-D, NBCSWA, NHL.TV)