|
|
 |
 |
|
| |
Thursday, Mar. 23 8:00pm ET
Big second period powers Wings | |||||
|
| ||||||
|
RECAP
|
BOX SCORE
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Sergei Fedorov is healthy and playing great hockey at the perfect time for the Detroit Red Wings. Fedorov, who missed 14 games this season with knee, wrist and neck injuries, scored on a breakaway and added two assists during a four-goal Detroit outburst in the second period, leading the Red Wings to a 6-3 win over the Nashville Predators Thursday night. "He's had a very good stretch. He had some bad injuries," Wings coach Scotty Bowman said. In 11 career games against the Predators, Fedorov has six goals and seven assists. On his breakaway goal, giving the Wings their first lead at 4-3 midway through the second period, he skated up the middle and deked Predators goaltender Tomas Vokoun to the ice before wristing a shot by him. "I took off, I had a good chance," Fedorov said. "I got fortunate. The puck was bouncing." Mathieu Dandenault, Larry Murphy, and Tomas Holmstrom also connected in the second period for Detroit, which owns the second-best record in the NHL, behind St. Louis, but won for just the second time in its past five outings. The Predators fell to 13-21-3 in Nashville, the worst home record in the Western Conference. As an expansion team last season, the Predators went 15-22-4 at home. The Predators dominated the tired Red Wings in the first period, outshooting Detroit 18-7 en route to taking a 3-1 lead. Nashville captain Tom Fitzgerald scored on a rebound at 8:16, before Detroit's Stacy Roest briefly tied the score on another rebound. Then Vitali Yachmenev put the Predators back on top 2-1 with a slap shot that handcuffed Wings goaltender Ken Wregget, and Patric Kjellberg connected on a two-man advantage to put Nashville up 3-1 at the end of one period. The Red Wings, who played a 2-2 overtime game Wednesday night against the Flames, stormed back in the second. They scored three goals on five shots in the first 9:23 to take a 4-3 lead. Dandenault connected at 1:40 on yet another rebound goal, and veteran defenseman Murphy deposited Pat Verbeek's cross-ice pass behind Vokoun at 4:28 to tie it. Fedorov finally put Detroit ahead at the 9:23 mark. Holmstrom continued the Wings' onslaught at 15:38, poking the rebound of Fedorov's shot by Vokoun, and Brent Gilchrist scored the final goal into an empty net. One night after collecting his 500th NHL goal, Verbeek had a pair of assists to give him 509 all-time. "Their top players played at a real top level tonight," Predators coach Barry Trotz said. Detroit's Brendan Shanahan (flu) missed just his fourth game of the season. | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Detroit Clubhouse Nashville Clubhouse RECAPS Florida 3 Boston 1
Detroit 6 AUDIO/VIDEO   Sergei Federov scores the go-ahead goal.avi: 718 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1   | |||||