Music To Your Ears

Flames dump the Predators 6-3 in Nashville

By Ty Pilson

@typilson CalgaryFlames.com

January 05, 2024

NASHVILLE - The Predators became the prey.

And it sure made for a fun one to watch for Flames fans.

Calgary won its second game of this four-game road swing on Thursday in Nashville, drawing first blood in the contest and scoring four goals in the opening frame en route to a 6-3 victory in Nashville.

The win put Calgary above .500 at 17-16-5, the team posting three straight victories now.

Connor Zary, Blake Coleman, Nazem Kadri, Rasmus Andersson, Noah Hanifin and Yegor Sharangovich scored, while Dan Vladar had an excellent night making 30 saves.

Zary, Andersson and Coleman finished the evening with two points each.

Watch the highlights from Thursday's victory in Nashville

The clubs had already played the first two games of their three-game regular-season set, splitting them: The Flames winning 4-2 at home on Nov. 7, and losing 4-2 in the Music City on Nov. 22.

Coming into the tilt, they had both won two straight - Calgary's most recent victory coming Tuesday in a 3-1 decision over the Wild.

Speaking of wild, that was the best way to describe the first 20 minutes of the game.

The goals came quick.

And there were lots of them.

A.J. Greer tried to feed a cross-ice pass to linemate Dillon Dube on a rush but the latter was hooked, leading to an early Flames powerplay.

Juuse Saros managed to somehow keep the puck out of the net during a wild goalmouth scramble, but not long after, Zary would use a screen from Elias Lindholm - named an all-star Thursday, more on that below - to score his eighth of the campaign at 4:45, Sharangovich and Rasmus Andersson getting the helpers.

Connor rifles home his eighth of the year to put the Flames up 1-0

Just a scant 27 seconds later, Coleman would snap a shot that went off the glove of Saros, then up-and-over him into the net, with Nashville captain Roman Josi desperately trying to bat it out of the air.

Coleman extends his team lead with his 15th of the season

The Preds came with pressure and a hard cycle on their next possession, with Vladar stoning Ryan O’Reilly’s one-timer from beside the pipe off a behind-the-net feed from Gustav Nyquist, but Filip Forsberg there to put it home 57 seconds after Coleman’s tally at 6:09.

Kadri restored the two-goal lead at 7:57 with unassisted marker, skating the puck up the ice and then cutting to the middle around sliding prone Preds blueliner Dante Fabbro, putting it shortside under Saros’ glovehand.

Kadri gets in on the action as he snipes a beauty

Colton Sissons tipped a long-distance wrister from Fabbro with 4:50 to go in the period to make it a one-goal game again.

The Flames kept coming in waves, though, Jonathan Huberdeau trying to score another backhand in tight off a feed from Lindholm - smiliar to what he did Tuesday against the Wild - but Saros stopped him.

Then Backlund drove wide around a defender and cut to the net, however he was also denied.

But with 1:16 remaining in the entertaining opening stanza, Andersson would score a dandy, taking a pass from Zary on the fly after gaining the Nashville zone, and then juking around Fabbro and Josi before potting a backhander.

Andersson and his ice-cold celly caps a wild first period

The Flames had some great chances in the second period: Zary went looking for his second of the night, knocking a puck out of the air but Saros gobbled it up, and Andrew Mangiapane made a lovely spin at the blueline to beat Fabbro right as he got the puck on partial breakaway but he fired it wide.

Vladar was impressive, too, stoning Philip Tomasino who got a breakaway as he came out of the box after serving a minor for tripping Adam Ruzicka.

With time winding down, the Flames netminder made two huge stops which lead to a Calgary rush, finished off by a perfect pass from Mangiapane to a trailing Hanifin, who tapped it home with just .2 seconds left in the frame.

Hanifin converts the Mangiapane feed with 0.2 left in the second

Saros was pulled after two periods, allowing the five goals on 26 shots. Kevin Lankinen subbed in, stopping 13 of 14 the rest of the way.

Michael McCarron scored a weird one 2:15 into the third, his long-range wrister deflecting off Vladar’s blocker and in.

But Sharangovich would round out the scoring thanks to a nifty play by the all-star, Lindholm lifting the stick of Lankinen behind the net, stealing the puck and feeding it out to No. 17 who put in the wide-open net at 14:04.

There was a scary moment late in the tilt with 5:30 left to play when Tomasino was called for a five-minute slew foot on Flames blueliner Dennis Gilbert, who stayed down on the ice for some time after their collision and had to be helped off the ice by teammates, giving Calgary a powerplay to finish out most of the remaining time.

Lindholm steals the puck and feeds Sharangovich for a tap-in

One-Timers:

The NHL announced the first 16 players for the Western Conference all-star team just before puck drop, Lindholm chosen by the league to represent the Flames. For more info click here. The final 12 players (eight skaters, four goaltenders) will determined by fans, the fans, at NHL.com/Vote from now until Jan. 11 ... Mikael Backlund is now four games away from tying Mark Giordano for the second-most games played in Flames franchise history at 949 ... Adam Ruzicka tied Ronald Petrovicky (107GP) for the most games played by a Slovakian-born skater in Flames franchise history on Thursday.