Must Watch: Red Wings' Lyon Robs Stamkos at Five-on-Three

Late in the second period of Saturday afternoon's game in Nashville, Detroit Red Wings goaltender Alex Lyon submitted an early nomination for save of the year in the NHL.  With the Red Wings leading 2-1 but at a five-on-three deficit in manpower, Lyon robbed Predators sniper Steven Stamkos with the handle of his goal-stick, denying the newly relocated winger his signate power play one-timer.

Nashville's first goal of the afternoon came on a sequence Lyon likely regrets, emerging from the rebound of a point shot he probably ought to have squeezed.  However, in the final minute of the second, the former Yale Bulldog made a spectacular stop to preserve the Detroit lead heading into the second intermission.  The shot was powerful enough to knock Lyon's stick from his hand, but no so powerful as to find the net.

Before the Red Wings traveled to Nashville Friday, coach Derek Lalonde pointed out that the Saturday matinee would be a clash of two teams keen to break out of slow starts to the season.  "I'm sure they're desperate, but we're desperate too," Lalonde said. "This does not feel good."  Lyon's stop on Stamkos was perhaps a desperate one, but it was a pivotal one as well, focused and of enormous in preserving Detroit's advantage after a period in which the Red Wings asserted control.