Calgary Comes Back In The 3rd To Defeat Nashville

Jerome Iginla warming up for his hat trick

The game was exceptionally good last night right up until the 3rd period. Coming into the 3rd, the score was 3-1. The second the puck was dropped to start the 3rd the Predators fell apart. I hope a performance like this never happens again.

The 1st period of play was full of power-play chances. Miikka Kiprusoff had an amazing 1st period, seeing as how half the period was played on the power play for the Preds.

The 2nd period is when everything started to heat up. At 5:42 into the period, Greg Zanon took a pass off of Klein and slapped it top shelf for the first goal of the night. Right after that, 6:01 into the period, Jerred Smithson dropped the puck back for Jordin Tootoo who put a nice shot past Kiprusoff’s blocker. After that, at 8:10 into the period, David Legwand passed to Shea Weber, who fed it to J.P. Dumont who centered it for Jason Arnott who sniped it passed Kiprusoff. Hot off those 3 goals in a 2:28 time period, everything looked good. 14:04 into the period, Jarome Iginla netted one top shelf for his 3rd of the season. At the end of the 2nd we still looked in pretty good shape for a win.

This is when we started to look tired and incapable of holding our lead. We were able to hold them off for almost seven minutes before the flood gates were opened. 6:52 into the 3rd, a shot from the blue line got a bad rebound and Jarome Iginila got clocked in his second goal of the night. At this point, I was starting to wonder if we were going to keep the game in regulation or even lose. A little over a minute after Iginla’s goal, the same circumstances showed up again. A shot from the blue line with a bad rebound turned into a goal. David Moss was standing right in front of the net and got the rebound. A notable save that Ellis made was with 4:44 left in the 3rd, it was a wide open net and he got the tip of the stick on the puck, just enough to stop it from going in. 12:30 in, the Flames got another goal. Dion Phaneuf Blasted one from the blue line and Mike Cammalleri redirected it through the five-hole of Dan Ellis. Once they took the lead I knew there was no coming back. The next seven minutes were a drag to watch. To finish off the game, Jarome Iginla scored on the empty net for his first hat trick of the season. This 3rd period was a mad house. Awful performance.

We were 1/5 on our penalty kill tonight. We’re now ranked at 28th overall on penalty kill. What happened? We went 1/8 tonight on the power play. Ranked 24th overall in that category. Let’s get it together huh?

Ellis had a rough night. He let too many rebounds in for one night. I won’t put it all on him, seeing as how the defense was non-existent in some of the goals. I expect to see a quite a bit more from him.

Nick Tarnasky made his Predator debut last night. Within the first ten minutes he mixed it up with Brandon Prust. He also recorded his first point with an assist on the 2nd goal. Go Nick.

Jackson Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass