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Instant Reaction: Flames battle back, but fall short against Nashville
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Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images
Ryan Pike
Jan 3, 2026, 22:06 ESTUpdated: Jan 3, 2026, 22:28 EST
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Welcome to Instant Reaction, where we give you our instant reaction to tonight’s Calgary Flames game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below! 
Gang, let’s be honest here: the Calgary Flames weren’t amazing on Saturday night when they hosted the Nashville Predators. They had a pretty decent start, but the Predators carried play for the bulk of the first and second periods. The Flames battled back to tie the game in the third period, but Nashville scored with 27.8 seconds left in regulation to beat the Flames by a 4-3 score.

The rundown

The Flames opened the scoring 1:56 into the first period. They won an offensive zone face-off, passed it back to the point, and Yan Kuznetsov’s shot found a way through traffic and beat Juuse Saros to give the Flames a 1-0 lead.
The Flames thought they had a two goal lead 6:22 into the first, as Mikael Backlund started and finished a nice rush passing play, setting up Rasmus Andersson for a point shot off a zone entry and then finishing off a Blake Coleman pass after he grabbed the rebound. However, Nashville challenged for a missed off-side and, alas, the goal was wiped out.
Nashville seemed to wake up after that, as they really did a nice job on the forecheck and executing some nice passing plays. On one rush sequence, they tied the game. The Predators grabbed an errant Flames pass in the neutral zone and headed the other way. Steven Stamkos passed to Michael Bunting, who swung the puck to Erik Haula at the other side of the crease for a quick tap-in past Dustin Wolf to tie the game at 1-1.
93 seconds later, Nashville scored again. This time, a Flames turnover in the Nashville end led to an odd-man rush the other way, defended by Joel Farabee. Haula opted to shoot, beating Wolf short-side and giving the visitors a 2-1 lead.
Ryan Lomberg fought Cole Smith midway through the first period.
After that fight, there was a scrum in front of the benches and John Beecher and Michael McCarrron got into it.McCarron started swinging before Beecher got his gloves off, then Beecher clocked him while they were being restrained by the linesmen. Both players got two for roughing and a misconduct.
A little later, the Flames drew back even. Matt Coronato made a smart pass, finding Andersson with all sorts of room to operate in the offensive zone. Andersson fired the puck past Saros to tie the game up at 2-2.
First period shots were 16-11 Predators. Via Natural Stat Trick, 5v5 scoring chances were 14-8 Predators and high-danger scoring chances were 5-3 Predators.
Nashville took the lead early in the second period off a pretty inauspicious play by Wolf. Wolf played the puck behind the net, but with Nashville players forechecking along both sides of the boards, he opted to make a less than ideal pass… right to Bunting, who fired the puck into the open net before Wolf could slide back into the way of his shot. That gave Nashville a 3-2 lead.
Beecher fought Nashville’s Nicolas Hague in the second period and got the worst of their bout.
Second period shots were 13-3 Predators. 5v5 scoring chances were 10-7 Predators and high-danger scoring chances were 4-2 Predators.
The Flames tried to press in the third period to varying levels of success. But they seemed to maintain their composure and keep pressing. With 7:11 left, they managed to tie things up. Coronato caused a turnover by getting his stick in the way of a pass attempt. A couple passes later and Coleman slid the puck past Saros to tie the game at 3-3.
But the Predators answered back late, winning a board battle deep in the Flames’ zone back to the point, where Hague’s point shot found a way through – beating Wolf, who likely couldn’t see past Kuznetsov and Smith jostling for position out front – with 27.8 seconds left to give Nashville a 4-3 lead.
The Flames didn’t have enough time to answer back and lost 4-3.
Third period shots were 9-7 Flames. 5v5 scoring chances were 7-5 Predators and high-danger chances were 2-2.

Why the Flames lost

The Flames looked pretty sharp in the first 8-10 minutes of this game, but they seemed to struggle with puck management in all three zones. Heck, the first three Nashville goals all came pretty soon after Flames turnovers. But give the Flames credit: even though they weren’t at their best in terms of execution, they kept pressing. But give the Predators credit: they could’ve regrouped and tried to get the win in overtime, but they kept battling and managed to get the late go-ahead goal.

Red Warrior

We’ll give it jointly to the line of Matt Coronato, Blake Coleman and Mikael Backlund. Yes, we’ll admit it is a cop-out, but the trio were the most noticeable unit for the red team, and Coronato made two really nice plays at key moments that led to goals for his team.

Turning point

The Predators scored the game-winner with 27.8 seconds left in regulation. That’s a tough one to give up.

This and that

John Beecher left the game with an upper body injury after his fight with Nicolas Hague and didn’t return.
Without Beecher, head coach Ryan Huska turned on the line blender in the third period, mixing and matching his 11 forwards quite a bit. Coleman, Backlund and Coronato remained together, but everybody else got new linemates: Nazem Kadri did double duty, centring both Sharangovich & Lomberg and Zary & Klapka, while Morgan Frost centred Huberdeau & Farabee. (The defensive pairings remained consistent.)

After Burner

Join Ryan Pinder and Robert Munnich right after the game for After Burner!

Up next

The Flames (18-19-4) close out their five game homestand on Monday night when they host the Seattle Kraken.

This article is brought to you by Platinum Mitsubishi

This article is a Presentation of Platinum Mitsubishi, family owned and operated by lifelong Calgarians. Home of the best warranty in the business with ten year warranties available. Check out the showroom at 2720 Barlow Trail NE or online at www.mitsu.ca

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