In Calgary, Mike Smith has turned around his season after a dismal stretch of eight games; on Saturday night he made 25 saves to help the Flames to a 5-2 win over the visiting Nashville Predators.
The Predators had tied the game, 2-2, early the third before the Flames reeled off three unanswered goals.
“We have a great team in here,” Garnet Hathaway said. “We have a lot of potential. When you get depth scoring and you get those guys playing as well as they are. We have roles right now, and guys are stepping up.”
Hathaway, Oliver Kylington, Sean Monahan, Elias Lindholm, and Alan Quine scored for the Flames.
“Amazing feeling,” Kylington said of his first NHL goal. “First time I touched the puck there. When I got it off my stick, I had a good feeling, and when I saw the puck in the back of the net, happy feeling.”
Colton Sissons and Craig Smith had the strikes for the Predators who dropped to 19-10-1.
“I thought we just gave them too many,” Craig Smith said. “[Saros] is a good goalie. We gave them too much. I thought they capitalized on a lot of quick turnovers. We’re going to have to go back and look at the tape and make some adjustments again and correct it.”
The Flames improved to 9-1-1 in their last 11 games.
“We kept our foot on the gas. We never got down on ourselves. We kept focusing on, ‘We need to get better, we can’t take a step back.’ Every period, we came in here and talked and said, ‘Hey, this isn’t our game. We’ve got to get to our game,” Hathaway said after the win.
[WATCH: All Predators vs. Flames highlights]
Juuse Saros made 20 saves in the loss.
“I think they wanted it more. At times we played well, and at times they outplayed us. Just getting back to basics. I think we’ve obviously been hit with the injury bug, and when that happens, you have to simplify your game and play very predictable for your teammates,” Nashville’s Ryan Ellis said.
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