CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Blake Coleman scored the go-ahead goal and the Calgary Flames rallied for three in the third period of a 4-2 comeback victory over the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.
Dillon Dube, Noah Hanifin and Nazem Kadri, into an empty net, also scored for Calgary (4-7-1), which has won consecutive games for the first time this season.
"You can see the confidence growing in guys and in the group and the way we’re playing,” Coleman said. “Confidence is a big thing in this league, and it makes a big difference, and when you start to get that collective confidence, that’s when teams get dangerous.”
Michael McCarron and Kiefer Sherwood scored for the Predators (5-7-0), who have lost three of four.
“We’re playing with fire. To a man, we weren’t good enough. We didn’t win the battles. We weren’t sharp enough,” Sherwood said. “It’s just a matter of time when you play like that. You can’t hold onto a lead in this league when you’re just on your back foot.”
Jacob Markstrom made 17 stops to snap his seven-game winless skid. He hadn’t won since he was in net for Calgary’s victory in its season opener.
The much busier Juuse Saros had 35 saves in the loss.
Trailing 2-1 after 40 minutes, the Flames tied it at 4:45 of the third. Shortly after Yegor Sharangovich was stopped on a great setup in front by Kadri, Sharangovich got the puck in the corner and set up Hanifin breaking in from the blue line. He whipped a 30-foot wrist shot into the top corner.
Less than two minutes later, Coleman gave Calgary its first lead. Holding onto the puck on a 2-on-1, he wristed a shot high over Saros’ glove.
With the Flames down 2-0, their comeback began at 15:06 of the second when defenseman Nikita Zadorov burst up ice and dropped the puck to Dube, whose shot squeezed through Saros’ pads for his second goal of the season.
Nashville opened the scoring at 4:35 of the first when McCarron scored his first goal of the season by finishing off a slick passing sequence. In his second NHL game, defenseman Marc Del Gaizo sent a pass down low to Liam Foudy, whose touch pass across to McCarron was neatly steered inside the post.
Sherwood finished off a perfectly executed 2-on-0 with Luke Evangelista to make it 2-0 at 14:34. But the Flames carried the play for most of the opening 20 minutes and outshot Nashville 17-6.
“In the first period, we were lucky to come out of the period up 2-0,” McCarron said. “I think they had a lot of great chances. Juice stood on his head for us the whole night. At the end of the day we just gave up too many Grade As against him.”
BENCHED
Calgary forward Jonathan Huberdeau sat out the entire third period. In the first season of an $84 million, eight-year deal, Huberdeau has two goals and four assists in 12 games. He has only two assists in his last eight games.
“I thought Huby had an off night and when we went into the third period, we wanted to try to get a little bit more flow and we went with the guys we felt were rolling,” Flames coach Ryan Huska said. “It’s not anything anybody wants to go through ever, but at times, it’s gonna happen. You’re not gonna have an A-plus game every night.”
UNAVAILABLE
Flames winger Andrew Mangiapane, one goal shy of 100 for his career, did not play as he served his one-game suspension for his cross-check to the neck of Jared McCann of the Seattle Kraken.
UP NEXT
Predators: Visit the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night.
Flames: Visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday night.
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