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NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Ticker) -- Rookie defenseman Bubba Berenzweig picked the perfect time to get hot. Berenzweig set up two goals before scoring 2:20 into overtime as the Nashville Predators rallied for an improbable 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings. "We hadn't beaten them yet this year," Berenzweig said. "It was big for the team and, of course, big for me. It feels really good since it was Detroit and I went to the University of Michigan for four years." Recalled from the minors on December 19, Berenzweig tapped a pass from Vladimir Orszagh over the right pad of goaltender Dominik Hasek for his first NHL game-winner. "I saw my forwards battling for it along the boards. I kind of stayed out by the blue line at first," Berenzweig said. "When I saw Orszagh was going to get the puck, I started to creep in. I saw their player was going to step over and play Orzy. I just kept sneaking back door and he made a great pass to me." The Predators erased a 2-0 deficit in the final five minutes of regulation, tying it on Orszagh's power-play goal with 65 seconds to play. Mike Dunham made 26 saves to improve to 5-1-3 in his last nine starts. Trailing 2-1 late in the third period, he stopped Brendan Shanahan twice on a shorthanded chance, making a pad save before sliding across the crease and kicking Shanahan's second shot out of mid-air. "He's a pure goal-scorer and he can shoot the puck," Dunham said. "I just wanted to be out on my angle. I tried to take as much of the net away as possible. It was just reaction. He shot it really quick and I got my foot out." Vitali Yachmenev ended Hasek's shutout bid with 4:10 left in the third period. Yachmenev tried a wraparound, but his backhander from behind the net bounced off the skate of Detroit's Sergei Fedorov at the left side of the net and slid past the goalie. "I just tried to throw the puck in front of the net," Yachmenev said. "It hit something in front, a stick or a skate. I didn't even see it and Hasek was a little out of position." Orszagh tied it just over three minutes later, 92 seconds after Detroit's Tomas Holmstrom was penalized for closing his hand on the puck. Hasek managed to make a pad save on Berenzweig's slap shot from the high slot, but Petr Tenkrat poked the puck to Orszagh, who flipped it in from the left side of the net. "We couldn't beat Hasek. He was unbelievable," Orszagh said. "I pretty much had an empty net to shoot at. Petr did a great job of screening the goalie." Rookie Pavel Datsyuk and Kirk Maltby scored for the Red Wings, who had a five-game unbeaten streak stopped. "I think we were fortunate to be up a couple, really," Detroit coach Scotty Bowman said. "I don't think we played really well." Datsyk opened the scoring with just under three minutes to go in the first period. With defenseman Bill Houlder sliding across the slot, Datsyk dragged the puck around him and put a wrist shot between Dunham's pads. Maltby doubled the Red Wings' lead eight minutes into the third period. His shot from the left faceoff circle bounced around in the crease off Dunham and defenseman Mark Eaton, but Maltby followed up and poked the puck under the goalie's arm. |
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