Juuse Saros made 24 saves and the Nashville Predators extended their winning streak to three games with a 4-2 win over the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night.
Colton Sissons, Ryan O’Reilly, Alexandre Carrier and Juuso Parssinen scored, and Ryan McDonagh had two assists for Nashville.
“It took us a minute to get going, I think, in the first,” Sissons said. “We really got to our game in the second and third and controlled most of it. We performed really quite well from top to (the) bottom of the lineup.”
Noah Hanifin and Yegor Sharangovich scored, and Jacob Markstrom made 41 saves for Calgary, which was 3-0-1 in its previous four games.
“I thought we were slow and sloppy,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. “That’s the best way I can probably put it for the entire night.”
Sissons opened the scoring at 2:33 of the first period. With the Flames on a power play, Roman Josi stripped the puck from Calgary’s Jonathan Huberdeau as he tried to cross the blue line into the offensive zone. Josi led the rush the other way and Sissons beat Markstrom with a slap shot.
Sissons has scored both of Nashville’s short-handed goals this season.
Calgary failed to convert four power plays in the game. The Flames have one man-advantage goal over their last eight games, going 1-for-22 in that stretch.
Hanifin answered at 4:46 of the first, converting a nice feed from Andrew Mangiapane.
O’Reilly made it 2-1 Nashville at 11:23 of the first, tapping home a rebound. With the goal, the 32-year-old O’Reilly extended his point streak to five games with two goals and four assists.
Gustav Nyquist assisted on O’Reilly’s goal, extending his point streak to six games.
McDonagh returned to the Nashville lineup after missing seven games with a lower-body injury.
“We were pretty good with the puck execution-wise tonight, and it paid off,” McDonagh said.
Markstrom had to be sharp to keep the game close, as Nashville dominated possession through two periods and outshot the Flames 32-17 in the first 40 minutes.
“Tonight’s an example of where he played really good, but we’ve got to be a lot better in front of him,” Hanifin said. “When you get goaltending like that, we’ve got to be better and create some more chances and give up a little bit (fewer) grade-a chances.”
Carrier scored his first goal of the season at 11:36 of the third, and Parssinen scored his first goal since Oct. 12 at 17:22 of the third.
“I think we were relentless,” Carrier said. “We had more confidence with the puck making some plays and taking care of the puck.”
Sharangovich scored a short-handed goal at 19:15 of the third period.
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