Smith makes 43 saves, Flames shut out Predators

NASHVILLE -- Mike Smith made 43 saves in a 3-0 win for the Calgary Flames against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday.

It was Smith's first shutout of the season and the 37th of his NHL career. Sean Monahan scored two goals and Johnny Gaudreau had three assists for Calgary.
WATCH: [All Flames vs. Predators highlights]
"The last two games were weird games," Smith said. "They were low shots, kind of a lot of chances. A weird flow to them. I definitely felt more like myself tonight. I feel like, especially game one, not necessarily bad goals but you stop a couple of those and it might've been a different story. So I knew we were going to have a tough game here tonight, but I prepared like it was going to be a tough one and fortunately we got the job done."
Elias Lindholm gave the Flames a 1-0 lead at 16:11 of the first period on the power play. Gaudreau deked into the zone and passed it to Lindholm, who scored his third goal of the season.
Monahan made it 2-0 at 5:22 of the second period on a rebound on the power play. Matthew Tkachuk took the original shot, and Monahan followed with his third of the season.

"The big thing is we're on the start of a road trip here," Monahan said. "We've got two more games. And to start it off on the right foot, that goes a long way."
Monahan extended the lead to 3-0 33 seconds into the third period on a 2-on-1. Monahan attempted a cross-ice pass that bounced off Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm and past goalie Pekka Rinne.
"When you play with the players I play with, it makes it easy," Monahan said. "When you get looks, and the looks I get, obviously it's pretty lucky."

The Predators finished 0-for-4 on the power play, including a 5-on-3 for a full two minutes in the second period.
"I think when we go back and look at it, we're going to see that we had a lot of good chances," Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. "We just didn't capitalize."

They said it

"He was outstanding here tonight. I thought he was in total control. He looked very comfortable, very confident and handled the puck really well. Communicating with the young [defense], I thought he was a difference-maker tonight for sure." -- Flames coach Bill Peters
"There was a lot of good things we did out there tonight. I feel like we were a little bit snakebit. At the end of the night we were pushing 40 shots and probably had over 25 quality chances and weren't able to score the goal, so I guess first and foremost we probably need to put the puck in the net. But we'll go back and look at things and see if we were getting in the areas hard enough. I know that there were some chances right in there. You've got to give their goalie some credit. He played a good game tonight." -- Predators coach Peter Laviolette

Need to know

Tkachuk finished with one assist and has five assists in his past two games. … The only goalie with more saves in a shutout in franchise history was Dan Bouchard, who made 46 against the Detroit Red Wings on Dec. 13, 1972, and 45 against the Toronto Maple Leafs on April 2, 1975. … The Predators were shut out at home for the first time in a regular-season game since a 1-0 loss on Feb. 4, 2017 against the Red Wings. … Rinne made 24 saves.

What's next

Flames: At the St. Louis Blues on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; FS-MW, SNF, NHL.TV)
Predators:Host the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; FS-TN, TSN3, NHL.TV)