By Mitch Gatzke
The Detroit Red Wings lost game three of their opening round series against the Nashville Predators on Sunday afternoon, giving Nashville a 2-1 series lead.
The Predators took an early lead, striking first less than three minutes into the game. Shea Weber collected and scored on a rebound that escaped Wings goalie Jimmy Howard and his teammates. The rest of the first went by pretty uneventfully and the Wings headed to the locker room down by a goal.
The second period opened up with the Preds scoring this time just 3 minutes and fifty seconds in. Kevin Klein maneuvered his way past the Wings defense for a breakaway and with a top shelf shot on Howard's glove side, gave the Preds a two goal lead.
The action died down again as it did in the first, that is until the five minute mark when Pavel Datsyuk gave the Wings some life. The Predators won a face-off in their zone but careless play by their defensemen opened the door for Datsyuk. A quick takeaway behind the net and a wrap around shot caught Nashville goal Pekka Rinne by surprise, and just like that the Wings had their first goal of the afternoon.
Datsuyk's play really ignited a fire under his team and for the rest of the second period the Wings were putting good pressure on Rinne and the Predators. This all came to a dramatic climax at the very end of the period. Johan Franzen tied the score at two but upon further review it was proven the puck had not crossed the goal line before time expired.
Although Detroit didn't get the goal, it was a huge momentum push going into the final twenty minutes.
The opening of the third brought a much more exciting brand of hockey with play going up and down the ice at a much greater pace. A heightened sense of urgency definitely played a part in this, both teams realizing it was a pivotal point in the series.
Lazy play by the Red Wings defense gave the Predators the a golden opportunity to extend their lead, an opportunity they capitalized on. Sergei Kostitsyn scored his first goal of the series and gave the Predators a two goal lead again with just three and a half minutes left.
With less than a minute remaining in the game Henrik Zetterberg lit the lamp and put his team one goal closer to a tie with a quick wrist shot that went over the shoulder of Rinne. After Zetterberg's goal, even with a pulled goalie, the Wings were unable to put sustained pressure on the Preds and as time expired, it was Nashville up 3-2 on Detroit.
Game four is a very important one for both teams. If the Wings lose this one, they will be heading back to Nashville needing to win three games in a row to advance to the next round, not an ideal situation.
Tune into NBC Sports Network or CBC on Tuesday night at 7:30 to watch game four between Nashville and Detroit.
