Power-Play Goals, Rinne's Shutout Lead Preds to Win Over Wings

Filip Forsberg and Eeli Tolvanen took advantage of the man advantage.
Both Nashville forwards scored power-play goals in the third period Tuesday night - and Pekka Rinne stopped all 24 shots he faced - to give the Preds a 2-0 shutout win over the Detroit Red Wings at LIttle Caesars Arena. The result gives the Preds consecutive victories on their schedule and moves their record to 8-10-0 on the season.

Rinne's shutout was the 59th of his career, a mark that ties Evgeni Nabakov for 19th in NHL history, and Tolvanen's tally was his first ever on the man advantage, a pair of players at opposite ends of their careers helping to give Nashville two much-needed points in the standings.
"It's huge," Rinne said of following up a solid effort in Columbus on Saturday with a win in Detroit. "We've talked about it the last few days since we came back from the road, and it's a huge one. It doesn't matter who you play against, it's not easy to win, but I think it's important that we play the right way and we certainly did that tonight."

"It was a tight-checking game all the way through, and I thought we got better and better as the game went on with that third period being our best period," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "We came on in the third period, played really well, special teams were a big difference in the game, and I felt Peks held the fort when they made a push later in the third. It's nice to see us now be able to string some games together. We've played more to the identity we wanted to play with, and it's good to see."
Following a goalless first period, Forsberg appeared to give the Preds a 1-0 lead late in the second, but Detroit challenged the play for goaltender interference. After review, the officials determined Predators forward Mikael Granlund had disrupted Wings goaltender Jonathan Bernier enough to reverse the call to keep both teams off the scoresheet through 40 minutes.

Forsberg made up for it in the final frame, however, when his feed deflected off the stick of a Red Wings defender and past Bernier on the power play to give his club a definitive 1-0 lead. Then, roughly five minutes later on another man advantage, Forsberg delivered a beautiful, cross-ice feed to Tolvanen, and the winger sniped home his second of the season to put the game out of reach.

"Everybody in the room felt good, felt confident after that huge win in Columbus, and I think it showed today," Tolvanen said. "All four lines were playing great, and we didn't give them much. Our offense was really good, our defense was good and I think we played a really hard game."
Rinne was solid down the stretch and had to make 11 saves in the game's final 20 minutes, just another classic performance from the veteran netminder.
"He played unbelievable again, but I think he's been playing really well for us this season," Forsberg said of Rinne. "There's been games when we just haven't showed up in front of him and kind of left him out to dry, but today I thought we played solid defensively. Whenever they got a chance, especially a couple in third there, he came up clutch and made some huge saves. We're obviously very lucky to have him… and we've just got to keep playing hard defensively and let him do his thing."

"I'm in a different situation [this season], but I love to compete," Rinne said. "I've said earlier, who knows if this is my last year - just trying to really take it all in and give everything I have. It's been fun lately to get to play a little bit more."
Rinne's group will have a chance for a third consecutive victory when they face the Wings again on Thursday, and just as they did in Tuesday's triumph, the Preds hope to continue to embrace the identity Hynes and his staff want to see them put forth.
That look has begun to come together over the past three outings, and if the Predators can keep it up, the points might just keep coming too.
"The last couple of games, we've been playing more [how we want to play]," Forsberg said. "The forwards [have been] creating a little more time for the defensemen… and that's something that we've been talking about and definitely doing better and obviously getting results. We didn't get any 5-on-5 goals today, but we had plenty of chances and that's something that we need to keep building on."

Notes:
Preds centerman Ryan Johansen returned to the Nashville lineup on Tuesday after missing seven games due to injury. Johansen skated between Eeli Tolvanen and Nick Cousins, while registering one shot in 15:48 of ice time.
Nashville scratched forward Yakov Trenin and defenseman Jarred Tinordi on Tuesday night.
The Predators finish off their trip to Detroit on Thursday night (at 6:30 p.m. CT) with another contest against the Red Wings before returning home to host Columbus in a pair of afternoon tilts on Saturday and Sunday.