Predators hold Red Wings to 16 shots, end their winning streak at five

DETROIT -- The Nashville Predators held the Detroit Red Wings to 16 shots and ended their five-game winning streak with a 5-2 victory at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday.

"That's a good team that has been playing really well, but I felt like we were able to control all 60 minutes," Predators defenseman Roman Josi said. "I know I wouldn't want to play against our forwards when they are forechecking like this."
Josi, Ryan Johansen and Dante Fabbro each had a goal and two assists for the Predators (14-10-1), who are 6-1-1 in Detroit since the Red Wings moved into their new arena for the 2017-18 season. David Rittich made 14 saves after Juuse Saros was a late scratch with a non-COVID illness.

Nashville defensemen Ben Harpur and Philippe Myers came into the lineup after Mattias Ekholm (non-COVID illness) and Matt Benning (upper-body injury) were late scratches.
"We feel like we have very good depth and we saw that tonight," Nashville coach John Hynes said. "[Harpur] had been playing on his conditioning stint in Milwaukee [of the American Hockey League], Myers always does a good job of staying ready and David always steps up when we need him to play."
Alex Nedeljkovic made 28 saves for the Red Wings (13-10-3), who hadn't lost since Nov. 20, 2-1 in overtime to the Arizona Coyotes.
"I didn't think we were ready to play hard and compete at a high level tonight," Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. "They wanted those two points more than we did."
Johansen gave the Predators a 1-0 lead, knocking in Matt Duchene's pass for a power-play goal at 12:32 of the first period.
"We're not winning enough face-offs and our [penalty kill] forecheck hasn't been good enough, so we're spending too much time in our zone," Blashill said. "That means if we make one mistake, it goes in the net."

Josi made it 2-0 at 17:43, stickhandling past Filip Hronek for his eighth goal of the season.
"It was kind of a broken play," Josi said. "[Fabbro] had the puck and I saw some space, so I jumped into it, and he hit me in a great spot. I had a step on the defenseman, so I went to the net."
Robby Fabbri pulled Detroit within 2-1 at 9:58 of the second period on the power play.
Nedeljkovic kept the Red Wings within one by stopping Philip Tomasino on a breakaway at 19:48.
Nick Cousins made it 3-1 at 2:33 of the third period, beating Nedeljkovic with a backhand from the edge of the crease.
Eeli Tolvanen extended the lead to 4-1 at 7:07, tipping in Fabbro's point shot, but Michael Rasmussen cut it to 4-2 at 8:57.
Fabbro scored his first goal of the season into an empty net at 19:29 for the 5-2 final.
"Every time we got into their zone they beat us down low," Red Wings forward Dylan Larkin said. "They made it hard to get to the net and get off shots, and I think we need to learn from that and take some of that intensity into our game."
NOTES: Red Wings rookie defenseman Moritz Seider left in the third period with an undisclosed injury. Blashill said he didn't expect to have an update until Wednesday. … Hynes said Saros and Ekholm were feeling better after the game and he doesn't expect either illness to be a long-term problem. … Johansen has scored 13 points (two goals, 11 assists) in his past nine games. … Detroit's top line of Fabbri, Larkin and Lucas Raymond finished with four shots. … Red Wings forward Pius Suter had an assist to extend his point streak to six games (one goal, five assists). ... Harpur had one shot in 13:20 and Myers had two hits and blocked four shots in 15:50.