The visiting Detroit Red Wings and Nashville Predators will continue their fight for the playoffs when they meet in a Monday matinee at 2 p.m. ET.
Both are coming off losses on Saturday night. The Red Wings fell 5-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C., while the Predators dropped a 3-2 overtime decision to the host Dallas Stars.
Detroit is in the first wild-card spot in the tightly packed Eastern Conference but is only 2-4-1 in its last seven games.
“I thought the game was real fast to begin with. There was a lot of pace going both ways,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “A lot of (Carolina’s) offensive opportunities came off of our tape. We have it on our sticks, we make mistakes with it and they’re gone the other way. They’re a real good team that capitalizes on that.”
Detroit’s goals, by defenseman Simon Edvinsson and Patrick Kane, came 47 seconds apart in the last two minutes of the second period.
Kane’s ninth goal of the season snapped a 14-game drought and was the 501st of his career. It moved Kane into 49th place all-time, surpassing Lanny McDonald.
Edvinsson’s goal made the night a little easier to take for the young defenseman. The Hurricanes’ first goal came when his shot was blocked by Taylor Hall, who then chased down the puck and scored on a breakaway. And Sebastian Aho’s attempted pass went in off of Edvinsson for Carolina’s second goal.
The Red Wings’ two goals at the end of the second brought them to within 3-2, but the Hurricanes scored twice in the first six minutes of the third period to seal Detroit’s fate.
Cam Talbot made 31 saves.
Despite jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, Nashville had to settle for a single point in the overtime loss in Dallas.
“It’s one that you’re disappointed in not getting two (points), but coming off the break getting three of four is certainly positive. We need as many points as we can,” said Steven Stamkos, who scored his 30th goal. “We’ve talked about just trying to stay the course and get on a little streak of collecting points. We’ll take it, but felt like the game was there. It was there for the taking.”
The Predators are just outside of the playoff picture and 1-1-2 in their last four games.
This is the 10th time in his career that Stamkos has reached the 30-goal plateau. That puts him third among active players. Alex Ovechkin has reached that mark 19 times and Sidney Crosby 13.
Michael Bunting also scored and Luke Evangelista had two assists. Juuse Saros stopped 22 shots.
“First period, we were on the forecheck, we were skating, we were physical. It was a really entertaining first period. For us, I thought, that’s the style of play we wanted to continue,” Stamkos said. “(After) we just weren’t as quick on pucks.”
Defenseman Adam Wilsby left the game early in the second period with a lower-body injury.
–Field Level Media
