Recap: Calgary Flames (3) @ Nashville Predators (2) SO: It Wasn’t Pretty At Times, But A Win Is A Win.

Well. The Flames and Predators sure like to make these games interesting. This one looked like it was going to be a runaway victory for Nashville, but the Flames dug deep, got some third period magic and Matthew Tkachuk buried the game winner in the shoot out to give the Flames a 3-2 victory on the road.

1st Period: Calgary 0 Nashville 2

The Flames took the play to the Predators early in the period, lead by a nice bit of forechecking by Micheal Ferland who would receive a pass in the return, but fire the puck over the net, narrowly missing giving the Flames the first goal of the contest. Mark Jankowski would get himself on the score sheet, but not in the way the Flames would want. Jankowski would take a borderline tripping penalty and the Nashville PP would make the Flames play.

A loose puck behind the net worked it’s way to the front and no one wearing road whites put a stick or body on Filip Forsberg who tucked in the first goal of the game. Later in the first Matt Stajan would take an necessary interference penalty and P.K. Subban would feed Roman Josi, who got a great screen out front and would put the Predators up 2-0. So if you’re scoring at home: 2 penalties, 2 goals. Not a recipe for success.

2nd Period: Calgary 0 Predators 2

After a very sloppy and disjointed first period for the Flames, things opened up a bit. There was a Johnny Gaudreau breakway. There was Nashville missing a wide open net. There was Travis Hamonic getting sucker punched. With all of that said the real story of the second period was Pekka Rinne. Calgary would put 11 shots on net in the period, but Rinne was more than up for the task and Calgary would remain goalless after 40 minutes. Bonus? NO PENALTIES!

3rd Period: Calgary 2 Nashville 2

The third period was clean on the score sheet from a penalty standard, but the Flames would muck up the scoring section. For all the Flames hard work and amount of shots they put on goal in the first two periods it would be 2 of their 8 third period shots that would do the real damage.

Matthew Tkachuk would get the Flames on the board first at 9:28 with some help from Dougie Hamilton and Mikael Backlund. Tkachuk’s 3rd of the season would pull the Flames within 1. Not to be outdone, Micheal Ferland would tie the game at 2-2 a mere 2:30 later. Johnny Gaudreau and Dougie Hamilton would collect the helpers on Ferland’s second goal of the season, which felt like it was coming the way he played tonight. Mike Smith would headline the rest of the period making a few key stops to keep the score 2-2.

Overtime: Calgary 2 Nashville 2

OT would solve nothing as both teams exchanged a total of 6 shots, none of them finding the back of the net.

Shootout: Calgary 3 Nashville 2

Calgary would open up the scoring in the shootout when Sean Monahan would beat Pekka Rinne to give the Flames the advantage. Filip Forsberg would continue his torrid pace by scoring to even things up. But it was Matthew Tkachuk who would get the final say as he cruised in and beat Pekka Rinne to give the Flames their second shoot out win of the season.

Final Thoughts

Penalties looked like they were going to be the undoing of the Flames in this game. Calgary’s stellar PK unit allowed two shorthanded goals in this contest and against a strong Nashville PP unit, that can’t happen. The Flames also fell victim to the Preds PK. Calgary was 0-4 when having the man advantage and the offence struggled for most of the game. Part of that was Rinne dominating the game for 2 ¹⁄₂ periods tonight. For a good chunk of this game the Flames looked lost and their passing was terrible. Thankfully the Flames were able to put it together and give themselves a chance to snap a 2 game losing skid with the win tonight.

Flame of The Game

Matthew Tkachuk (F). For a good chunk of this game it looked like it would be Michael Frolik, but Tkachuk got the Flames going with his 3rd period goal. Adding the game winner in the shoot out wasn’t so bad either.

What’s Next: Calgary Flames @ St. Louis Blues 10/25/17

by Mark Parkinson