In Nashville, the visiting Calgary Flames scored four times in the opening stanza on Thursday night en route to a 6-3 win over the Predators. 
Dan Vladar made 30 saves in the win.
Calgary took a 2-0 lead on goals from Connor Zary, off the power play, at 4:45 of the first, and Blake Coleman, 27 seconds later.
“I think we came out pretty hard and we kind of took control of the game,” Zary said. “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.”
Nashville replied with a marker from Filip Forsberg at 6:19 for a 2-1 count.
Nazem Kadri restored the two-goal lead, briefly, at 7:57 of the first, 3-1.
“I thought we were the better team for the most part,” Coleman said. “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.”
Colton Sissons trimmed the deficit back to one, 3-2, at 15:50 .
“It was definitely not good enough,” Forsberg said. “I think we kind of got what we deserved.”
Rasmus Andersson sent the game to the middle frame, 4-2, with a strike at 18:43.
Nashville dropped to 21-17-1.
“We knew the importance of this game,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “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.”
Calgary’s Noah Hanifin scored with two seconds left in the middle frame to make it a 5-2 lead for the Flames headed to the third period.
“I liked the second period … and even the start of the third,” Flames coach Ryan Huska said. “I thought we got on our heels a little bit after they scored their goal to start the third period, but [we] weathered the storm, I guess. That’s an important thing for us.”
Nashville has one last push when Michael McCarron scored at 2:15 of the period for a 5-3 count.
Yegor Sharangovich hit for the game’s final goal at 14:04 for the 6-3 final count.
Juuse Saros got the start for the Predators, but was given the hook in the second intermission. He made made 21 saves, yielding five goals.
Kevin Lankinen made 13 saves in a mop up role.
“We can’t just win one or two and go back to a loss,” the Predators’ Ryan McDonagh said. “Tonight, against this kind of opponent who is right on our heels, we talked about the importance of getting some points here. Definitely a missed opportunity.”
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