Nashville Predators open March with loss against Red Wings, Evangelista on pace for 50 apples

An early game for the Nashville Predators and an early loss in the month.

The Predators fell victim to the Detroit Red Wings in the second half of the game, losing 4-2. This keeps them out of a wildcard spot, pressuring the team heading into the Trade Deadline this Friday.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored for Nashville [27-24-8], Evangelista racked up another assist, and Juuse Saros stopped 27 shots.

Detroit [35-20-6] put up a strong performance against the Predators, taking advantage of their strong two-way game to wear out the Preds. Nicolas Hague described how his team succumbed to the Wings pressure in the later stages of the contest.

"I thought they thrived there," Hague said. "I didn't think we did a good enough job taking it away. We turned over too many pucks, didn't manage it well enough and that's what they want. They capitalized on a couple."

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With 33 seconds left in the game and Saros pulled, Nashville pressed to tie at three. Roman Josi tried a pass to Michael Bunting, but a redirection off Ryan O'Reilly's skate created a neutral-zone turnover. Wings forward Alex DeBrincat took advantage of the miscue and potted the empty netter five seconds later, handing Detroit the win.

Detroit rookie Emmitt Finnie scored the game's first goal 4:51 into it with a rebound in front of Saros. It's his 10th goal and 22nd point of the season.

The Predators responded on the power play with 2:58 remaining in the period thanks to a missile from Forsberg. Evangelista saw the Swedish winger in position and quickly dished the puck past the faceoff circle and onto Forsberg's stick where he promptly released a heater past Wings goalie John Gibson.

Evangelista's helper puts him on pace for 51 this season. He, 24, would be the youngest Preds forward to record 50+ assists in a season since Ryan Johansen, 27 at the time, in the 2018-19 season. Evangelista is currently tied with O'Reilly for assists on Nashville with 37.

Forsberg's goal marks the team's third straight contest with a power play tally. They went 1/3 on the man advantage and 2/2 on the penalty kill. Detroit ranks ninth in league power play percentage with 23%, showing how strong Nashville's special teams' units are against even skilled clubs.

Marchessault tipped Nashville's second at 12:50 the following period. O'Reilly caught the puck mid-pass from Wings defender Simon Edvinsson and swung it over to Marchessault to make it 2-1.

Lucas Raymond tied it for Detroit 2:35 later with his 20th of the season. The Wings broke the tie with 3:24 in the stanza. Before the play, Wings forward Marco Kasper slew-footed Josi in front of the Preds bench with no penalty called. Kasper then led linemate Albert Johannsson on a breakaway and passed the puck over for the team's third.

Nashville's bench reacted with anger after the play, and that anger grew larger once Johannsson scored.

"It was disappointing. Probably let our emotions get the best of us a little bit," Hague said. "We talked about it and tried to regroup. I thought we came out and we had our chances. I think there's a little bit of execution coming back in the third and these points are so important."

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Today's loss puts more pressure on Preds management ahead of the deadline. Now three points out of a wildcard spot in the West, Nashville will feel a sense of urgency in their road game against Columbus tomorrow. Taking home two points could provide Preds GM Barry Trotz with enough confidence to hold off on selling pieces but a loss could provide the opposite.