The Nashville Predators and Calgary Flames tangled Thursday night in Calgary and the Preds climbed to within a single point of the Flames for the first wild card spot in the west.
Pekka Rinne helped the Preds to a win in Calgary – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Pekka Rinne made 24 saves to pick up the win as the Predators improved to 37-25-11.
Calle Jarnkrok, Colton Sissons and Ryan Ellis struck for goals in the 3-1 win for Nashville.
Nashville is now tied for third place in the Central Division with the St Louis Blues.
“That’s a huge win against a good team,” Rinne said. “They’ve been really hot as of late. They came hard, I thought, in the first and second. In the third period, I thought we locked it down pretty good, didn’t give them a lot. It’s a big character win. It’s not always pretty and it’s not always a fancy game, but it’s efficient.”
The Flames dropped their second straight game.
“There’s no cause for worry,” Flames coach Glen Gulutzan said. “You’ve got to push. It wasn’t like in today’s game we were dominated and we weren’t ready to play. We were ready to play. They’re a good hockey club. Like I said with the power play, we’ve just got to keep doing our thing and moving forward.”
Dougie Hamilton cored the one goal for the Flames.
“You can’t get down, not at this time of the year. It’s not the time to let two (losses) turn into three and then more,” Calgary’s Mark Giordano said.
WATCH: All Flames vs. Predators highlights
Chad Johnson took the loss on 14 saves.
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