The Predators are scheduled to have a team photo taken Tuesday prior to their Sommet Center practice. With the results of Monday night’s game against the Calgary Flames, there may not be a whole lot of smiles when team photographer John Russell tells them to say cheese, frommage, Käse, syr, ost, or juusto.
Calgary dominated Nashville from one end of the ice to the other and walked out with a 5-0 victory over the Predators in front of what looked like friends and family that was announced as a crowd of 10,581.
A game that featured two of the best Finnish goaltenders in the league that should have made Jimmy Buffett proud, was less of a goaltender battle and more of 18 skaters sporting the flaming ‘C’ outworking, outhustling, and outplaying the homestanding boys in Predator blue.
With the win, the Flames improved their already impressive road record to 10-1-3 on the season.
“Tonight, we were not as good as the Calgary Flames,” Predators coach Barry Trotz said. “They definitely deserved to win the hockey game, no question. They won more individual battles, more team battles, and it reflected in the score.”
After a scoreless first period, the Flames were first to strike when David Moss turned defense into offense at 1:32 of the second.
Moss blocked Dan Hamhuis’ shot at the left point and was set free on a breakaway on Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne. Moss beat Rinne with a backhand between the pads.
“I had seen the guy there, and I was actually trying to just miss him and put it in the corner, and it still hit him,” Hamhuis said. “It was kind of an unfortunate bounce. We really didn’t regroup after that either.”
That was all the offense the Flames would need on the night, as goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff stopped all 22 Predators shots sent his way.
Predator-killer Jarome Iginla had a power-play goal and an assist to improve his career statistics against Nashville to 24 goals and 22 assists in 37 games played against the Predators.
Iginla assisted on Nigel Dawes’ power-play goal just over four minutes after Moss started the scoring.
With Ryan Suter in the box for shooting the puck out of play inside his own zone, Iginla fed Dawes in front of Rinne. He stopped Dawes’ first shot, but Dawes corralled his own rebound and beat a helpless Rinne for his eighth goal of the season, and fourth in as many games.
“It was a bad play by me flipping the puck over, and that gave them the power play there,” Suter said. “Before that, I thought we could have got back into it, we had a couple of good chances.”
Flames defenseman Adam Pardy put the game out of reach at 8:09 of the third when his wrister from the high slot beat Rinne on the glove side.
“The third goal, I thought, was just the nail in the coffin,” Trotz said. “They weren’t giving us a whole lot, so the third goal was game, set, and match really.”
Curtis Glencross’ shorthanded goal made the game 4-0 at 16:01 of the third.
With the Predators on the power play, Trotz pulled Rinne to try and capitalize with six skaters to the Flames’ four.
Asked if he was surprised to be pulled for an extra attacker with so much time remaining in the game, Rinne responded, “I was a little bit, but I understand. We were down already 3-0, and with that power play, we needed at least one goal.”
Iginla capped the scoring at 18:53 of the final period with a tap-in off of a rebound of a Glencross shot.
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