Ryan Ellis keyed a third period explosion for the Nashville Predators as they pulled away from the Calgary Flames and took a 4-2 win tonight at Bridgestone Arena. He scored a goal early in the third and earned an assist for a point shot that was tipped on the way in by Viktor Stalberg later on. David Legwand contributed three assists, and Carter Hutton enjoyed a victorious return to the Nashville net in his first start since January 5th
After two periods, the Preds and Flames were tied at 1-1 in a game that was starting to look like a snoozefest, but the fireworks got rolling right away in the third, as the Predators scored thrice and Calgary answered back to make the game close. The Flames thought they had drawn to within 4-3 at one point, but the play was blown dead due to a puck being played with a high stick by a Calgary player. From there on, the Preds were able to maintain the two-goal lead and close out the victory.
Next up, the 20-21-7 Preds head off to Philadelphia for a game against the Flyers on Thursday.
Random Observations
- The Weber goal was as classic a one-timer as you’ll ever see… I like having him & Josi on one power play and Ryan Ellis with Seth Jones on the other.
- On the downside, however, giving up the tying score to Lee Stempniak shortly thereafter was a poor breakdown on defense, with the Preds getting outnumbered down low & Stempniak being left all alone in the slot.
- How much did I love that slapper by Ellis to open the 3rd? He realized he had a little space to work with, and took full advantage by picking his spot.
- Even if the Flames got robbed by having that goal waved off in the 3rd period for a high stick, they were only on the power play because Troy Brodie drew a cheap tripping call on Shea Weber to earn that power play, so karma rules. Anyway, the high stick was for Mike Giordano batting down the point shot, with the puck then being played for a teammate, it wasn’t the replay they kept showing on TV as the the puck was going into the net.
- Nick Spaling got 3:04 of power play time tonight, while Viktor Stalberg got 10 seconds. Oy.
- Paul Gaustad enjoyed a strong night on faceoffs, winning 15 of 23.
- Late in the 3rd Seth Jones got into a tussle and took down Mikael Backlund in front of the net, a nice bit of “snarl” that he hasn’t really shown much of previously.
Boxscore – Game Summary – Event Summary – Fancy Stats
Roll the video highlights…
Who was your Predator of the Game?
| Ryan Ellis | 130 |
| Carter Hutton | 9 |
| David Legwand | 21 |
| Shea Weber | 15 |