Helm score twice, Datsyuk add goal and assist in Wings’ 5-2 win over Predators

Helm scores twice, Red Wings beat Predators

DETROIT — Darren Helm scored twice, and Pavel Datsyuk had a goal and an assist in the Detroit Red Wings’ 5-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night.

Tomas Holmstrom and Henrik Zetterberg also scored, and Jimmy Howard made 20 saves. J.P. Dumont and Joel Ward scored for Nashville, and Dan Ellis stopped 27 shots.

Detroit led 2-0 after the first period.

Datsyuk opened the scoring at 7:44 with his 18th goal. The NHL leader in takeaways, Datsyuk stole the puck from Nashville defenseman Kevin Klein in front of the net, made a couple of moves and put a backhander under the crossbar.

Holmstrom made it 2-0 with a power-play goal with 6 minutes left in the period. He put a deflected shot attempt by Nicklas Lidstrom into an empty net his 17th goal.

Helm scored twice in the first half of the second period. He beat Ellis with a wrist shot from the inside edge of the left circle at 3:35 and added a short-handed goal at 9:10 off his own rebound. Helm has 10 goals this season.

Dumont put Nashville on the board 1:44 later, converting a cross-slot pass from the bottom of the left circle. It was Dumont’s 13th goal.

Ward made it 4-2, 3:15 into third period on one-time slap shot from the slot for his 13th goal. Zetterberg added an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

NOTE: Detroit D Andreas Lilja played his third game after missing a year because of post concussion syndrome after a fight with Nashville’s Shea Weber last season. … The assist on Holmstrom’s goal was the 800th of Lidstrom’s career. … Canadian Olympic gold medal-winning ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir attended the game. They train in the Detroit area. … Weber, who won a gold medal with the Canadian Olympic team in Vancouver, left the game during the second period because of an upper-body injury. He was shaking his left hand the last time he came off the ice. … Newly signed Detroit Lions defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch also was at the game.