Leelanau Sports Guy at sportspig.com

By AJ Petronzi
In Play Magazine

In a defining game in the battle within playoff rankings the Detroit Red Wings lost 4-3 to the Nashville Predators in overtime today.

Brian Rafalski broke open the score sheet today scoring the lone goal of the first period. Shea Weber tied the game in the second and Martin Erat gave Nashville a one goal edge before Nicklas Lidstrom tied the game again. Just before the end of the second, J P Dumont put Nashville up by a goal again. Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk scored the tying goal late in the third to force overtime before Ryan Sutter scored the game winner just 16 seconds into overtime.

Detroit played a rough first half of the first and didn’t look great during the second period either. Again they put themselves into a bad situation in overtime and lost the game. Today wasn’t the best game by Jimmy Howard, who will not start tomorrow for the first time in 25 games. Chris Osgood will start tomorrow in Philadelphia and today’s loss leaves Detroit in the possibility of falling back to seventh place in he standings.

In Play! Man of the Game: Tomas Holmstrom. Holmstrom was the only player to amass three points in the game, all of which came from assists.

Post game audio

By AJ Petronzi
In Play Magazine

In the first of three meetings between Columbus and Detroit in the next week, the Detroit Red Wings beat the Blue Jackets 3-2 to pull only three points shy of guaranteeing a spot in the playoffs.

Tomas Holmstrom scored the opener tonight, but Columbus’ Andrew Murray tied the game up after the first period. Pavel Datsyuk gave Detroit another lead in the second and Todd Bertuzzi extended that lead early in the third. The final goal of the game was scored late by Columbus’ RJ Umberger.

Detroit didn’t play a great game through the first twenty minutes, but came back and took control of most of the game afterwards. Detroit scored an additional goal tonight but the goal was taken away because Todd Bertuzzi spiked the puck out of the air and into the net with his hands. While the goal didn’t count, it did cause some laughs on both Columbus’ and Detroit’s benches. Tonight marked Detroit’s seventh consecutive win.

In Play! Man of the Game: Pavel Datsyuk. Datsyuk scored a great goal, plus had an assist and on more than one occasion turned the Blue Jacket’s defensemen inside out with his stick work.

Post game audio from the dressing room here…