By Jim Diamond PA SportsTicker Contributing WriterNASHVILLE. Tennessee (Ticker) - Valtteri Filppula scored hisfirst career penalty-shot goal to lead the toa 2-1 victory over the on Monday night. The Red Wings survived a last-minute cater play to record theirseventh straight win and improve their league-leading pointtotal to 46. Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood made 30 stops including severalin the final minute to improve to 14-1-1. He is 2-0 vs. Nashville and is 17-5-3 lifetime against the Predators."I like playing here (Nashville) ever since I played in St. Louis I have had success here," Osgood said. "It is another oneof those teams that I can't put my finger on it but I justlike to compete in their buildings and play against them.""I thought Ozzie did a good job especially in the third,"Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "We bent but we didn't breakand we found a way to get a win on the road."Tomas Kopecky scored the game's first goal at the 7:10 mark ofthe opening period. Pavel Datsyuk carried the puck into theNashville zone along the left boards. He whipped a cross-icepass to Kopecky in the right circle and he one-timed the puckby Nashville goaltender Dan Ellis. Filppula doubled the Detroit lead at 15:06 of the first when heconverted on a penalty shot. He was awarded the penalty shotafter being taken down from behind on a clear breakaway byNashville's Jerred Smithson who made a diving attempt to sweepthe puck off of Filppula's stick but missed and took out thefeet of the Detroit center."I'm glad that (the referee) called that because I could not geta shot off and I think that is the biggest reason the penaltyshot was called," Filppula said. "He just hit my legs; it was apretty clear tripping call.""When you see (Filppula) taking it to the net and using hisspeed it makes him a better player and it makes us a betterteam," Babcock added. On the penalty shot. Filppula faked Ellis with a forehand andthen quickly shifted to his hit lifting the puck high overthe prone Ellis."I lost my footing a little bit on the penalty shot and Ididn't get enough push," Ellis said. "You have to give creditto that hockey team they are the No. 1 team in the NationalHockey League and we put up a good fight we just started ourfight too late."The goal was Detroit's first regular-season penalty shot goalsince Igor Larionov recorded one November 22. 1995 against SanJose."I think if we get out of the first period down 1-0 we probablywin the hockey game," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "Youcan't make as many mistakes as we did in the first. In thesecond and third we didn't make as many mistakes and theydidn't score any more goals."Martin Gelinas cut the Red Wings lead in half with a shorthandedgoal with 24 seconds remaining in the second period. Nashville's David Legwand took the puck into the Detroit zone ona partial breakaway. Legwand had the puck knocked off of hisstick but Gelinas almost on the goal line to the right of thenet took a backhand swipe at the puck and got just enough of itto squeeze it between the pads of Osgood."In the second and third we played the type of game we want toplay," Gelinas said. "We got the shorthanded goal and a lot ofchances but we just couldn't buy another one tonight.""I knew he hit it because I heard him hit it but I didn't seeit because I was trying to get back on my feet as quickly as Icould," Osgood said. The shorthanded goal was the seventh of the season allowed bythe Red Wings the highest in the NHL.
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