Post-Game: Depleted Flames triumph over Predators

The Calgary Flames entered Saturday night’s game against the Nashville Predators missing a couple key pieces, namely captain Mark Giordano and two-way center Mikael Backlund. But playing against a similarly depleted Predators roster, the Flames merely stuck to their game-plan, relied on their depth, and grinded out a 5-2 victory over Nashville.

The opening 20 minutes were very scrambly, with both teams getting decent looks but a lot of plays falling apart just inside the offensive bluelines on both sides. The Flames opened the scoring 72 seconds in, though, as after an initial scoring chance fell apart Elias Lindholm found Oliver Kylington sliding into the slot. Kylington’s wrister beat Juuse Saros to make it 1-0 Flames.

But the Predators tied things up with 53 seconds left in the first. Roman Josi laid a saucer pass towards the Flames net which just got past TJ Brodie and dropped at the right time for Colton Sissons to get a stick on it for a slight redirect past Mike Smith. That made it a 1-1 hockey game.

Shots were 7-4 Predators and chances 5-4 Predators in the first period.

The second period was more of the same, with both teams afraid to give the other too much time or space. Nashville was content to clog things up in the neutral zone and in the middle of the ice, while the Flames tried their best to create off the rush but kept making one pass too many – or had passes hit skates.

But the Flames took the lead late in the second period. Travis Hamonic’s rim-around from the point was held in the zone by Noah Hanifin, who chipped the puck below the hashmarks to Sean Monahan. With no Predators between him and Saros, Monahan drove the net and chipped the puck over Saros to make it 2-1 Flames.

Shots were 12-8 Flames and chances 8-6 Flames in the second.

54 seconds into the third period, Nashville even things up off a rough goal for Smith. Craig Smith shot the puck from the far side of the faceoff circles and it hit Smith and dribbled through him, just trickling over the goal line to make it a 2-2 hockey game.

But the Flames retook the lead midway through the period off a faceoff win. Derek Ryan won the puck back to Kylington, who teed it up for Matthew Tkachuk at the point. His shot was tipped by Garnet Hathaway past Saros to make it 3-2 Flames.

Playing in his first game as a Flame, Alan Quine added some insurance a few minutes later. He dangled into the slot and back-handed the puck over Saros to make it 4-2.

Elias Lindholm added an empty-netter to make it a 5-2 final.

Shots were 12-9 Predators, but chances were 9-5 Flames in the third period.

Despite missing some key pieces, the Flames got contributions from all areas of their lineup. They got four goals at even strength from three of their forward lines, and even the line that didn’t score made things happen. They didn’t slump when Nashville scored and they just kept rolling along, as they seemingly have for much of this season so far.

Kylington. He had a tremendous game in all three zones, making smart decisions and especially making good things happen with the puck.

But this was a game where a lot of players did a lot of good things that snowballed as the game went along.

The go-ahead goal gave the Flames their lead back, but also allowed them to erase Smith’s dribbler that tied things up a few minutes prior. From there they kept things rolling and were able to cement a big victory.

Bill Peters fired up his Line Shuffle Machine to open the second period. He kept the first line (Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm) and the third line (Mangiapane-Jankowski-Neal) together, but swapped the other two lines around. Matthew Tkachuk played with Derek Ryan and Garnet Hathaway, while Sam Bennett, Alan Quine and Austin Czarnik made up the other trio.

This was Mark Jankowski’s 100th NHL game.

The Flames (19-9-2) are off to Edmonton. They face the Oilers in a Battle of Alberta rematch on Sunday night at Rogers Place.