Wings 4, Preds 1

The Wings handled the Preds easily last night, beating them 4-1. After losing three straight to Nashville, the Wings have beaten them twice, scoring 10 goals and allowing just one in the process. The other win was a 6-0 blowout in early January. Manny Legace got the start as predicted and was very steady, allowing one goal on 23 shots. The goal he allowed was much more of a poor play by his teammates than a bad goal on his part. He was very sharp and made it easy for the Wings to keep ahead. After a relatively boring first period, the Wings scored three goals in a little more than six minutes, all on nothing plays. Brett Hull scored his 19th at 1:01 off a pass from Ray Whitney and Brendan Shanahan scored his 8th a minute and 21 seconds later, when he received a brilliant pass from Henrik Zetterberg who faked Tomas Vokoun into thinking he was trying a wrap around shot. Then, at 6:17, Kirk Maltby scored his 8th of the season on a rush with Kris Draper. He beat Vokoun cleanly and then Chris Mason went in net for the Preds. At 16:38, Wyatt Smith scored a shorthanded goal despite the two Wings defensemen's attempts to stop him, committing penalties in the process. Pavel Datsyuk scored the final goal for the Wings, an empty netter from center ice, his 25th of the season. The Wings now have a ten-point lead on the Predators, who lead the St. Louis Blues by two points for second place in the Central Division. The Wings trail Colorado by two points with 70 and the two teams will meet tomorrow night in Denver. That's all I've got and I know it's not much. Not the most memorable game of the season, by far. Freep | News | ESPN | Box Score Lines- Maltby-Draper-Yzerman Whitney-Datsyuk-Hull Shanahan-Zetterberg-Holmstrom Dandenault-Mowers-McCarty Whitney-Draper-Maltby Shanahan-Yzerman-Holmstrom Lidstrom-Schneider Fischer-Chelios Rivers-Woolley Lidstrom-Chelios PP- Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Hull Shanahan- Yzerman-Holmstrom Maltby-Draper-Dandenault Lidstrom-Schneider Whitney-Woolley Woolley-Chelios PK- Shanahan-Yzerman Draper-Maltby Datsyuk-Whitney Lidstrom-Chelios Fischer-Schneider Lidstrom-Schneider Fischer-Chelios Net- Manny Legace