This was one of those games the Red Wings have had few of in the last couple of years.
Everything worked for the Wings, and many players made contributions (including some unexpected sources) as the Wings defeated the Nashville Predators, 4-2
The Wings (4-10-2) salvaged a split of the two-game series in Nashville — they went 2-4-0 on this six-game trip — and now return to Little Caears Arena on Monday, against Chicago, to begin their own six-game homestand.
Robby Fabbri (third goal in four games), Adam Erne (first goal in 36 games, dating to last season), Luke Glendening (first goal in 42 games) and Anthony Mantha scored for the Wings.
Goaltender Jonathan Bernier, who hadn’t started a game since Jan. 28 because of an upper-body injury, stopped 20 shots, wasn't overly-worked but made some timely, needed saves.
Nashville’s Filip Forsberg scored the Predators’ first goal, banking a puck off Marc Staal’s skate past Bernier at 7:57 of the third period.
But Mantha ended any suspense with his fifth goal, a blast off a 2-on-1 rush, restoring the Wings' three-goal lead, before Rocco Grimaldi scored for Nashville in the final seconds.
Fabbri opened the scoring with his fourth goal, snapping a quick shot from a Valtteri Filppula feed from behind the net at 4:59.
The Wings expect Fabbri to score. But to get goals from fourth-liners Erne and Glendening might have been an omen of good things happening.
Erne drove down the ice and backhanded a shot past Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne at 12:24.
Bernier preserved the two-goal lead with a sprawling save on Matt Duchene with just 2 seconds left in the first period.
Glendening extended the lead to 3-0 with his first goal at 17:22 of the second period, backhanding a shot that hit Rinne and tumbled into the net.
Glendening, returning to the lineup after missing three games with an upper-body injury, scored his first three points of the season (his first career three-point game) adding assists on Erne and Mantha's goals.
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