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The Calgary Flames hosted the Nashville Predators on Saturday night at the Saddledome. The Flames were pretty good early on. Then they took bad penalties at bad times, and their penalty kill couldn’t bail them out.
The Flames got behind the eight-ball and couldn’t find their way back, losing by a 4-1 score to the Predators.

The rundown

The Flames had all kinds of pep in the first period and they carried play for most of the frame. They had shots. They had chances, though they didn’t challenge Nashville netminder Justus Annunen a ton. They didn’t score, but they did a lot of good things.
First period shots were 11-3 Flames. Via Natural Stat Trick, five-on-five scoring chances were 13-3 Flames (high-danger chances were 4-1 Flames).
The wheels fell off a bit for the Flames in the second period. Andrei Kuzmenko was called for slashing in the offensive zone. On the resulting power play the Flames had a couple shorthanded looks, but couldn’t score. At the other end of the ice, Ryan O’Reilly chipped a rebound from around the blue paint past Dustin Wolf to give the Predators a 1-0 lead.
A little later, the Flames got a power play. On that power play, Kuzmenko played the puck at the point but his stick exploded. He played the puck with his feet and followed it… without dropping his stick, which led to a minor penalty that wiped out the remainder of the man advantage and gave Nashville a short power play.
On the resulting power play, Jonathan Marchessault made a nice play off a rebound and passed the puck to O’Reilly, who scored his second of the game to give the Predators a 2-0 lead.
Late in the second period, the Flames got on the board. Mikael Backlund retrieved a dump-in from Rasmus Andersson. With Blake Coleman providing a screen, Backlund fired the puck past Justus Annunen to cut the Nashville lead to 2-1.
Second period shots were 14-10 Predators. Five-on-five scoring chances were 11-2 Flames (high-danger chances were 3-1 Flames).
Midway through the third, Nashville earned some insurance. Off an offensive zone face-off win for his team, Fedor Svechkov grabbed the puck and tucked it behind Wolf to give Nashville a 3-1 lead.
The Flames pulled Wolf for the extra attacker late in the game, but O’Reilly scored on the empty net to complete his hat trick and complete the 4-1 Nashville victory.
Third period shots were 11-10 Flames. Five-on-five scoring chances were 16-7 Flames (high-danger chances were 4-4).

Why the Flames lost

The Flames had tons of momentum in the first period, but couldn’t muster up enough tips, traffic or dangerous chances to take advantage their puck possession. Their momentum evaporated after the two power play goals they allowed in the second period, and then they spent the remainder of the evening chasing.

Red Warrior

Let’s go with Backlund, who scored the Flames’ lone goal, had a ton of energy and fight in his game, and won a bunch of face-offs.

Turning point

The Kuzmenko penalty simultaneously wiped out a power play and then led to the second Nashville goal. It was a pretty big swing in momentum.

This and that

This was the eighth game this season where the Flames have allowed multiple power play goals. They’ve lost seven of those occasions.
Andrei Kuzmenko returned to the lineup, playing in place of the scratched Walker Duehr. After his second penalty, he had one shift at the end of the second period and then didn’t hit the ice until Matt Coronato took a fighting major, at which point Kuzmenko subbed in for a couple rotations until Coronato was available again.

Up next

The Flames (18-14-7) are headed back on the road. They visit the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night.