After a week of crappy play, Laviolette knew something had to change, so he swapped out the bottom pairing of Emelin-Weber for Irwin-Bitetto. It bit them more quickly than expected.
The Preds started the game with a decent pace, with a few good shifts from the top line. Unfortunately on one of those shifts, the third pairing of Irwin-Weber got a little too involved and gave up a break to Luke Witkowski for his first career goal. 1-0 Red Wings.
Only slightly deterred, the Preds got back to work, drawing a slashing penalty by Danny DeKeyser after some pressure by the third line.