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Predators-Red Wings Preview

Apr 2, 2010 - 5:04 PM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

Nashville (45-28-6) at Detroit (41-23-13), 2:00 p.m. EDT

The Detroit Red Wings are feeling great about themselves thanks to a season-high seven-game win streak and they're looking to move up even further in the Western Conference standings.

The Red Wings can move into fifth place in the West on Saturday at home when they try to earn another victory over the Nashville Predators.

Detroit (41-23-13) is 14-2-1 in its last 17 games to move closer to reaching the playoffs for the 19th straight season. The Red Wings are in sixth place, one point behind Nashville (45-28-6).

"Obviously we play Nashville our next game and that's a big game for us," coach Mike Babcock said. "We'd like to be in a position to go past them if we could."

Detroit's last three wins and eight of its last 13 have all been by one goal, including a 3-2 victory over Columbus on Thursday. Winning tight contests has increased the Red Wings' morale.

"We just control our own destiny here," right wing Todd Bertuzzi said. "The dressing room's pretty confident, we're playing well and we're doing the right things. We're winning those games that are close, we're grinding them out. We're doing stuff that you've got to do in order to win in the playoffs."

Since losing 3-1 in Nashville on Nov. 23, Detroit has won the last four meetings, most recently a 1-0 shootout victory last Saturday. Jimmy Howard made 33 saves for his second shutout and improved to 3-0 with a 1.30 goals-against average against the Predators this season.

Howard has posted a 1.96 GAA while playing every game of this win streak. He made 20 saves against the Blue Jackets.

The Red Wings believe that even when they were struggling, teams got up to play them and it's finally paying off.

"It's been making us better all season," Howard said. "Every single game, even when we had guys out and injured, teams still wanted to beat us just because we're the Red Wings. We see everyone's 'A game' every single night and it's really helped us here down the stretch and it'll help us going into the playoffs."

The Predators also know something about winning close games, prevailing by one goal in every contest during a four-game road win streak. That's the margin of Nashville's last five victories, including a 3-2 home win over St. Louis on Thursday.

Pekka Rinne made 31 saves and Patric Hornqvist assisted on all three goals, including Steve Sullivan's winner in the third period.

"We're not looking at it saying, 'You need so many points to get in, let's just get to it,'" Sullivan said. "We want to make sure we're playing the best hockey going into the playoffs. If we're just trying to sneak in, it'll be a quick first-round exit, and that's not what we want."

Hornqvist leads Nashville with 30 goals and 51 points, but has been held without a point by Detroit this season.

Rinne is 8-2-1 with a 1.51 GAA in his last 11 starts, and has won two career outings at Joe Louis Arena.

The Predators will try to contain Pavel Datsyuk, who has six points against them. Datsyuk has nine goals and 10 assists over the last 17 games.