In Nashville, the Predators found a way into the post season on Tuesday. They might have preferred a win, but a punched ticket is all they wanted.
Elias Lindholm scored the game-winner for the Calgary Flames in extra time to give them a 5-4 win, the loser’s point was good enough for Nashville.
“I think it’s a real tribute to our players,” Nashville coach John Hynes said. “We certainly deserve to be in the playoffs, the way that I think we played all year and the way the guys have battled. No one picked us to be here. We talked about writing our own story and having a strong team identity and a strong team culture, along with a lot of talent. They worked their [tails] off for 80 games to get here.”
Nashville dropped to 44-29-7, but secured the first wild card spot in the Western Conference.
“Yeah, that’s never good to see obviously,” the Predators’ Roman Josi said. “Hopefully he’s OK. We don’t know what’s going on. We’re just all hoping he’ll be OK.”
Dan Vladar made 19 saves in the Flames win.
“Lots of emotion, lots of energy in the building,” Calgary coach Darryl Sutter said. “Fun game. Win or lose it was a fun game.
“That’s what playoffs are. Up one, down one. You have to play every shift like it’s the one that will be the difference. That’s the way it works.”
Dillon Dube hit for a double for Calgary.
Matthew Tkachuk forced the extra session when he tied the game with one second left on the clock in the third period.
“I couldn’t hear, so I didn’t know if it was actually in or not,” Tkachuk said. “When I came to the bench, they said it was in. It was just like, `What else can possibly happen in this game?’ It was good to get that one and then get it in [overtime].”
Filip Forsberg hit for a pair of goals in the Predators’ loss.
“I’d have to say, I’ve played over 1,000 games now, and that’s probably a top-five game that I’ve been a part of with the goals, the hits, the fights, the emotion, crowd,” Calgary’s Milan Lucic said. “So it was a great game to be a part of.”
Matt Duchene and added single markers for the Predators.
“We hadn’t beaten these guys this year, so if we do run into them, it’s nice to have the confidence that we can beat them,” Tkachuk said. “I thought all in all, that game did a lot for us.”
Noah Hanifin also scored for Calgary.
Juuse Saros made 30 saves in the loss.
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