Calgary Flames overcome Nashville Predators 3-1
Miikka Kiprusoff turned aside 23 shots to lift the Calgary Flames to a 3-1 victory over the Nashville Predators at Scotiabank Saddledome on Monday night.
Jarome Ignila and Curtis Glencross both lit the lamp for Calgary, who has won three consecutive games. Matt Stajan and Alex Tanguay each picked up two assists. Brendan Morrison also tallied a goal in the win.
Tanguay was pleased with his team-mates performance, and said after the game, “When you lose, it’s almost like you don’t want the puck. Right now everybody wants it, it’s very contagious and hopefully we can keep on working the same way and keep on getting
better.”
David Legwand was the lone scorer for Nashville, who had a three-game winning streak halted. Pekka Rinne was dented for all three goals on 27 shots in the losing effort.
A disappointed Predators Head Coach Barry Trotz said, "We didn't manage the puck very well and passed up on some shots. When you turnover the puck and pass up on shots you're not going to score much."
Calgary got on the board first to take a 1-0 lead midway through the opening period. Glencross ripped a shot from the side of the Predators net, which banked in off a diving defender, and popped over the helpless goalie and into the net.
The Predators then tied the game at 1-1 with eight minutes left in the middle session. The play was set up by Colin Wilson, who let go a shot to the net that got past Kiprusoff and sat on the goal line. Legwand grabbed the puck and snapped it home.
Rinne preserved Nashville’s one-goal edge with a superb save on Rene Bourque’s blast shot after he was set up by David Moss.
However, after three failed attempts with the man-advantage, Calgary notched a 2-1 lead again on the fourth man-advantage with seven minutes left in second period. It started when Tanguay fired a shot on net from the high slot that was saved. The rebound
squirted to the left where Stajan collected it and slipped it over to the right for Iginla, who knocked it in for his team-leading 21st goal.
The Flames then scored an insurance goal on a power-play with five and a half minutes left in the final period. Mark Giordano threw a pass from the low left side to the slot, where Tanguay quickly tapped it to the right side. Morrison picked it up and slammed
a one-timer into the net to seal the win at 3-1. Morrison has now scored in three consecutive contests.
An excited Morrison, in a post-match interview said, “We’ve still got to jump a bunch of teams here so there’s a long way to go, but the positive thing is we are playing better hockey, we’re playing more complete games, and it’s adding up to some wins.”
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