Nashville Predators 3, Detroit Red Wings 2
NASHVILLE -- Balance and goaltending have been Nashville's calling cards for several years and they were in evidence again Wednesday night.
Rookie left wing Gabriel Bourque tallied the go-ahead and insurance goals Wednesday night and goalkeeper Pekka Rinne made them stand up as the fourth-seeded Predators dumped fifth-seeded Detroit 3-2 to take a 1-0 lead in their first round Western Conference playoff series.
Bourque's fellow fourth-liner, Paul Gaustad, started Nashville's scoring. Rinne stopped 35 of 37 shots, including 30 saves in the last two periods as he outdueled Jimmy Howard to start what could be a low-scoring, high-tension series.
Bourque snapped a 1-1 tie at 12:29 of the second period when he deflected Matt Halischuk's wrist shot, taken from the blue line, over Howard's stick side and just under the left crossbar as the sellout throng of 17,113 erupted.
Bourque, who scored just seven goals in 43 games, tacked on another one at 11:35 of the third when he snapped Patric Hornqvist's pass home from the slot. Bourque was turned away on a bid for a hat trick moments later.
Tomas Holmstrom converted a rebound at 17:53 to push the Red Wings within a goal, but they couldn't pot the equalizer despite a 6-on-4 advantage in the last 22 seconds after Martin Erat was sent off for holding.
Nashville opened the scoring in unexpected fashion when Gaustad, a center acquired from Buffalo just before the trading deadline to supply defense and the ability to win faceoffs, banked a centering pass off the skate of Detroit defenseman Brad Stuart at 6:59 of the first period.
Howard kept the Red Wings in contention for the period's remainder, turning away a spate of quality chances as the Predators buzzed around the net. During one power play, Howard stoned Andrei Kostitsyn twice, then turned away Ryan Suter on a one-timer from the left faceoff circle.
Nashville enjoyed 5-on-3 power play time for a 1:14 stretch late in the period after Jonathan Ericsson and Justin Abdelkader took penalties, but the Predators' power play, which led the NHL with a 21.6 percent success rate, couldn't convert any of its four chances.
Detroit's power play, ranked a mediocre 22nd in the regular season at 16.1 percent, evened the score 2:29 into the second period when Henrik Zetterberg pounced on a giveaway by defenseman Jack Hillen and converted from the slot.
Reversing the trend of the first period, which saw Nashville own a 13-5 edge in shots, the Red Wings peppered Pekka Rinne with the second period's first seven shots. Like Howard, Rinne was mostly up to the task, denying Tomas Holmstrom and Johan Franzen on point-blank chances.
The Predators didn't manage a shot until nearly nine minutes elapsed and were outshot 16-6 in the period. But one of their shots, a wrister from the blue line by fourth-line right winger Halischuk, eluded Howard on the stick side at 12:29 to restore a one-goal margin.
NOTES: Nashville D Hal Gill, whose 105 games of playoff experience lead the roster, sat out with a lower-body injury after being unable to practice Tuesday or Wednesday morning. ... Detroit's third-line C, Darren Helm, returned to action after sustaining a sprained left medial collateral ligament on March 17. But he was knocked out after the first period with an upper-body injury. ... NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman attended the game.
