Power Play Remains Hot, But Preds Fall to Red Wings

The Nashville Predators scored three more power-play goals, but ultimately fell 5-3 to the Red Wings in Detroit on Friday night at Joe Louis Arena.
P.K. Subban, Mike Ribeiro and Mike Fisher all converted with the man advantage, but Detroit goaltender Petr Mrazek turned aside 30 of 33 Predators shots on the night.
Netminder Pekka Rinne was again the Nashville Predators best player, stopping 38 shots on the night overall. The Finnish goaltender stopped 15 pucks in the opening 20 minutes alone and faced at least 42 shots for only the 11th time in his career.

"I thought we played pretty hard," Fisher said. "We made some mistakes that cost us, but we didn't give up right to the end… "Rinne has been great, he's been really really good and probably our best player [this season]."
After the Red Wings took a 1-0 lead in the middle period, two Detroit penalties in a 50-second span gave the visitors a lengthy 5-on-3 power-play opportunity, and they cashed in on both. A slapper from Subban knotted the score, and Ribeiro used a toe drag to navigate around Petr Mrazek's pads and tuck the puck into the net for two power-play scores within 18 seconds of each other.

Drew Miller evened the score for the Wings in the final minute of the second, and then Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist made it three and four goals for Detroit in the third.
"There's things that we can do better defensively," Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. "Sometimes [opportunities] are coming off of turnovers too… and maybe not the structure we were looking for because of the turnovers that happened. So those are things that we're trying to get through."
Nashville tallied their third power-play goal of the night on a Fisher redirect in front to bring the Preds back to within one, but late Nashville penalties put the Red Wings on the power play where they added an empty-net tally to ice it.

"I thought our guys played hard; we did some things that shot ourselves in the foot, but they competed and played hard, especially with the short bench," Laviolette said.
It doesn't get any easier for the Preds on Saturday as they return home to host Pittsburgh while searching for their second victory of the season.
"It was a close one, and guys were playing through stuff," Fisher said. "It felt like one of those games where we were going to come back, and we just didn't give up. It's frustrating to lose, but we have to get back at it tomorrow."
Notes:
The Predators played the majority of the game without the services of forwards Ryan Johansen and Craig Smith, who left the contest due to illness.
Nashville skated in their final regular-season game at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, 18 years to the day after playing there for the first time ever. The Predators next game in Detroit will be played at Little Caesars Arena, barring a 2017 Stanley Cup Final matchup between the two teams.
The visiting Preds wore Gold jerseys and helmets - usually reserved for home games - at the Joe on Friday. The wardrobe changeup marked the first time the Predators have ever worn their Gold helmets on the road for an NHL game.
Nashville will skate in its second back-to-back set of games already on the young season when they return to Music City to host the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.