*Photo from The Rink Live*
The Flames might start boiling soon. Blake Coleman had a goal and an assist, 3 other skaters had the same line, and the Calgary Flames defeated the Nashville Predators with a 6-3 victory on Thursday night in Nashville.
Rasmus Andersson, Connor Zary, and Yegor Sharangovich joined Coleman with a goal and an assist in the game as the Flames won their 3rd straight game and are 6-2-2 in their last 10 games. It was a 4 goal first period that set the tone for the Flames, with 6 goals being scored in the first in total.
Zary said of the win that "I think we came out pretty hard and we kind of took control of the game. Obviously we got the lead, and we were able to play with the lead. I think that’s something that we want to do more of. We’ve had a lot of come-from-behind wins and whatnot in the first half of the season. It’s nice to play with the lead and keep the lead."
It was Zary who started the scoring, making it 1-0 Flames with a power play goal. Coleman scored 27 seconds after that, quickly doubling the Flames lead to 2-0. Filip Forsberg got the Predators on the board 57 seconds later to make it a 2-1 game. Nazem Kadri scored to make it 3-1 Flames before Colton Sissons answered back for the Predators. Andersson then made it 4-2 with his 6th goal of the season.
Noah Hanifin scored the only goal of the second period, making it 5-2 with two seconds left in the period. Michael McCarron scored 2:15 into the 3rd period, cutting the deficit to 5-3 on his 6th goal of the season. Sharangovich then potted his 12th goal of the season with an assist from Elias Lindholm to make it a 6-3 score.
Coleman said after the game that "I thought we were the better team for the most part. Early in the third, they get that kind of fluky bounce and took the air out a little bit, but aside from that I felt like we were pretty well in control. We got the saves when we needed them. A couple of nice goals early on to give us that momentum, but I thought the energy and the jump was pretty evident pretty much from puck drop."
Starting in net for the Flames was Dan Vladar, who was able to pick up the win as his record improved to 6-4-2 in 12 starts. Vladar stopped 29 of the 32 shots the Predators sent his way, which was good for a .906 save percentage.
It was Juuse Saros who started for the Predators, who took the loss to drop to 16-14-1 on the season. Saros made 20 saves on 25 shots from the Flames before he was pulled after two periods. Kevin Lankinen came on for the 3rd and made 13 saves on 14 shots.
Predators head coach Andrew Brunette said of the loss that "We knew the importance of this game. We discussed how home ice means something, how we wanted to establish our game, how we wanted to dictate, how we wanted to win battles, how we wanted to out-compete them, and we did none of them."
Both teams get back in action on Saturday. The Flames have an afternoon showdown with the Philadelphia Flyers, with Jacob Markstrom projected to start. The Predators take on the Dallas Stars, with Lankinen listed as the projected starter.
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