DETROIT — Goalie Cam Talbot backstopped the Detroit Red Wings to their first win of the 2024-25 season in dominant fashion, turning aside all 42 shots he faced in a 3-0 shutout victory over the Nashville Predators at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday night.
“I thought I felt pretty good all day today” said Talbot, who recorded his 32nd career NHL shutout in his first start with the Red Wings. “Just doing what I’ve done throughout my career, trying to prepare the same way. Made a few big saves early, couple on the PK there in the first [period] and just kept it going from there.”
Detroit (1-1-0; 2 points) has won each of its last three home games against Nashville (0-2-0; 0 points), which got 19 saves from netminder Juuse Saros on Saturday.
“That’s a really good team,” Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said about the Predators. “I don’t see them getting shut out many times this year. That was a pretty good effort, obviously starting with our goalie and then our team defense in front of him.”
Saturday’s game started with a scoreless first period that saw the Nashville outshoot Detroit 16-8.
J.T. Compher broke the deadlock just 1:02 into the second period, tipping in Ben Chiarot’s high shot from the point to put the Red Wings ahead 1-0. The secondary assist on Compher’s first goal of the season went to Moritz Seider.
At 6:35 of the third period, Lucas Raymond set up Andrew Copp for a backdoor goal with a nice cross-ice pass from above the left face-off circle to make it 2-0. Simon Edvinsson also contributed on Copp’s first goal of the season, picking up the secondary assist.
“When they’re playing their game, it’s a lot of winning shifts,” Lalonde said about Compher and Copp. “I love the fact that they both got us offense, but they were winning shifts. Again, that’s some really hard matchups with that type of lineup. I’m glad they both got rewarded with some offense. They had really good games for us.”
Christian Fischer left in the second period with an upper-body injury, but Lalonde didn’t have an update postgame on the 27-year-old forward.
