The Detroit Red Wings continued their streaky ways with their fifth-straight win on Saturday, besting the Nashville Predators 4-1. The first of six meetings between the Central Division rivals also saw Nashville lose its fourth straight game, a stark contrast to their streak before the losing skid, in which they'd earned a point in 10 of 11 games between Oct. 27 to Nov. 19. They've been outscored in that time 17-8.
The Red Wings, though, have outscored their opponents 20-9 on their winning streak. After being out-shot in two of three periods against the Boston Bruins and by a good margin overall, the Red Wings outshot Nashville 37-19 overall, and by a margin of 14-3 and 11-5 in periods one and two, respectively. They were out-hit and had the same amount of faceoffs won.
Detroit got things started in the first period, when Valtteri Flippula scored on a power play, assisted by Todd Bertuzzi and Henrik Zetterberg. Zetterberg would get a goal of his own in the second, and Flippula earned his second in that frame as well. Danny Cleary added the insurance goal in the third. Jack Hillen scored for Nashville, but it was near the end of the third and was too late.
Pekka Rinne stopped 33 of 37 on the night, while Jimmy Howard stopped 18 of just 19 shots faced.