Matt Duchene scored his 40th goal of the season and Mikael Granlund had the only goal of the shootout to lead the Nashville Predators to a 3-2 victory over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night.
Filip Forsberg also scored and Juuse Saros made 19 saves in regulation and overtime for Nashville, winners of two of three. The Predators entered Tuesday in the Western Conference’s top wild card position, tied in points with the Dallas Stars.
Andrew Mangiapane scored twice and Dan Vladar made 25 saves in regulation and overtime for Calgary, which had its two-game winning streak snapped. The Flames inched closer to clinching the top spot in the Pacific Division with the standings point for the shootout loss.
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In the shootout, Granlund slipped a wrist shot between Vladar’s pads. Saros then stopped Tyler Toffoli to seal the victory for Nashville.
Forsberg scored the game’s first goal at 7:23 of the second period on a Nashville power play.
From the centre of the blue line, Ryan Johansen sent a pass to Forsberg in the left circle. There, he beat Vladar with a one-timer to the far side that tipped off of the post.
Duchene doubled the lead at 12:09 of the second.
Vladar stopped Duchene’s initial shot, but the rebound bounced around just outside of the crease and then off of the stick of Calgary defenceman Christopher Tanev and past Vladar.
Mangiapane halved Nashville’s lead at 15:13 of the second.
With Calgary on a power play, Saros stopped Johnny Gaudreau’s shot from the left side, but the rebound bounced off of Matthew Tkachuk and then to the left post, where Mangiapane had a tap-in for his 33rd goal of the season.
Mangiapane struck again at 6:40 of the third, converting the rebound of a Toffoli shot, tying the game.
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