DETROIT _ The Detroit Red Wings feasted on Pekka Rinne, pounding him with pucks to earn a third consecutive victory.
The penalty kill had a rough night with three goals allowed to the Nashville Predators, but the Wings' offense held up for a 5-3 final Friday at Joe Louis Arena, setting up a nice streak as the San Jose Sharks come to the Joe Saturday.
Justin Abdelkader, Drew Miller, Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist scored as the Wings reached 43 shots on goal. Darren Helm scored into an empty net after two Predators were sent to the penalty box with 2:02 to play in regulation.
Friday featured a fine start, as the Wings forced a handful of saves from Rinne within 3 minutes, and had 10 shots by the time they earned a power play near the 7-minute mark. Neither unit was able to get much going. Better attack was generated back at even strength, but Petr Mrazek had busy stretches, too, especially during the second half.
Tatar backhanded the puck to Riley Sheahan, but his shot sank into Rinne's right pad as the Wings reached 15 shots by the end of the first period. Mrazek also made 15 saves as the Wings allowed some easy chances against.
Steve Ott had a shot deflected by Rinne early in the second period, as the Wings rushed Nashville's zone, and their dominance paid off with another power play.
It took just 5 seconds to convert. Helm won the faceoff, Nyquist got the puck back to Ryan Sproul on the blue line. He wound up a slap shot that sailed through traffic and deflected in off Abdelkader. The Predators challenged goaltender interference, but the call stood for a 1-0 lead. It was Sproul's first career NHL point, in his second career game.
A delay of game penalty put Danny DeKeyser in the box 50 seconds after Tatar, and the Predators used the two-man advantage to have P.K. Subban one-time a puck up the middle for a 1-1 score. That was excusable; less so was Brendan Smith making a bad decision that allowed Mike Ribeiro to slide to the net uncovered and scoop the puck into Detroit's net 18 seconds after Subban's goal.
Miller, fresh from scoring Wednesday's game-winning goal, netted his second of the season when he sent the puck top shelf with 39.7 seconds left in the second period.
A minute into the third period, the Wings had restored their lead. Tatar grabbed a pass from Alexey Marchenko and weaved into Nashville's zone to score, finally breaking through after numerous good chances through the first four games.
Dylan Larkin got the crowd going when he took offense to getting a stick to the face, pounding on transgressor Yannick Weber, earning huge cheers. Nyquist followed up with his first goal of the season, pouncing on a loose puck at Nashville's blue line and rushing in to shoot stickside on Rinne. Mike Fisher tipped a puck on a power play to make it 4-3 with 4:46 remaining.
