NASHVILLE — The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Nashville Predators for the second time in a week, pulling away in the third period for a 5-2 victory at Bridgestone Arena on Saturday afternoon.

Goalie Alex Lyon made his second start of the season for the Red Wings (2-3-0; 4 points), finishing with 37 saves. Goaltender Juuse Saros had 19 saves for Nashville (0-5-0; 0 points), which was shut out by Detroit, 3-0, at Little Caesars Arena last Saturday.

“Just a positive win,” Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said. “I thought it took everyone in the lineup. Obviously Alex Lyon was excellent. Asked the guys to stay on task, our process hasn’t been that bad even with the two losses against New York. I thought they responded pretty well with a really good win.”

Luke Schenn’s goal – a snipe from just below the blue line – opened the scoring and put the Predators ahead 1-0 at 8:48 of the first period. Colton Sissons appeared to double it at 10:57 when he buried a rebound, but the goal was overturned after the Red Wings successfully challenged for offside.

Just 2:29 later, Detroit evened the score when Vladimir Tarasenko took a feed from Jonatan Berggren and beat Saros with a shot from the slot to make it 1-1. With the secondary assist on Tarasenko’s second goal of the season, Marco Kasper tallied his first career NHL point.

“Really good team effort,” said Kasper, who was playing in his second career NHL game. “It was fun to contribute to it, and just trying to do my best out there.”

Giving the Red Wings their first lead of the afternoon, captain Dylan Larkin stashed home Alex DeBrincat’s pass at the side of the net on a power play to make it 2-1 at 3:17 of the second period. Patrick Kane earned the secondary assist on Larkin’s third goal of the season.

Lyon had a highlight-reel save while the Red Wings were on a 5-on-3 penalty kill at the end of the second period, getting the shaft of his stick on Steven Stamkos’ shot to keep Detroit’s one-goal lead intact.

But Stamkos managed to get one past Lyon just after Nashville’s 5-on-3 power play expired just 32 seconds into the third period, burying a one-timer from the left face-off circle to tie it 2-2.

Detroit pushed back with a goal of its own when Andrew Copp deflected Joe Veleno’s shot past Saros to make it 3-2 at 3:29 of the third period. The secondary assist on Copp’s second goal of the season went to Christian Fischer.

“We had such a good 5-on-3 kill, then for them to unfortunately get it right after the guy had just gotten out of the box,” Copp said. “It was such a good kill that I think we almost took a little bit of momentum from it. I know they scored, but there were so many positives to take from it. We didn’t want to let it waver our confidence, and we were able to respond right away.”

An empty-net goal by Simon Edvinsson made it 4-2 at 18:43 of the third period, then Copp provided even more insurance for the Red Wings with an empty-net goal of his own at 19:18 for the 5-2 final. Michael Rasmussen had the lone assist on Copp’s third goal of the season.

Copp said picking up its second win of the season after a pair of frustrating losses was huge for the club.

“Everything gets magnified early in the season with such a small sample size,” Copp said. “You never want to lose two in a row, definitely don’t want to lose three in a row. It was good to right the ship a little bit, kind of get a good feeling back in the room for a big game on Tuesday.”

Two empty-net goals in 35 seconds. pic.twitter.com/PDZrcSPT05

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) October 19, 2024

NEXT UP: The Red Wings will face the New York Islanders for the first time this season when the clubs meet at UBS Arena on Tuesday night.

POSTGAME QUOTES

Lalonde on the Predators

“This is a really good team. I know they’re 0-5, but you look and see at the end of the year, they’re going to be right there. They were a Cup contender going into the season, and I think they’ll be there in the end.”

Lalonde on Copp’s impact and the success of Detroit’s fourth line on Saturday

“I think that was my point of Marco balancing our lines out. Veleno on the wing, I thought that gave Copp a nice spark. That was a pretty good line for us. They score, had some momentum and had a lot of shifts. Even in the goalie pull, they came up for us and got us the fifth one.”

Lalonde on Kasper’s play on Saturday

“Loved it. Trust him in every situation. We were hoping he would give us a little spark. I just like what it does for the balance of our lines. It gives us some flexibility.”

Copp on what ways the Red Wings played with a high desperation level

“I think in our own zone mostly, just the sense of urgency to get pucks out of the zone to block shots and be tight-checking to your guy. I think I talked about that last week, and kind of had that extra on-your-toes sensation a little bit. Played a pretty good defensive game.”

Copp on Kasper

“He was himself. He played with a lot of pace, plays with a lot of grit and made a few little plays here and there. He’s going to be a good player for a long time. He got his first [NHL] game out of the way two years ago when he got injured, but you can see it’s all there for sure.”