Rinne, Predators shut out Flames 2-0
CALGARY, Alberta -- Pekka Rinne stopped 32 shots for his third shutout of the season as the Nashville Predators blanked the Calgary Flames 2-0 on Saturday.
Ryan Johansen and Kevin Fiala scored for Nashville.
The Predators (21-7-4) swept their three-game Western Canadian trip and have won six of their past seven games overall (6-0-1).
The Flames (16-14-3) have dropped two straight games and six of their last eight (2-4-2). They fell to 8-10-0 at home.
Rinne's 46 career shutouts are the most by a Finnish-born goaltender and is three better than retired Flames great Miikka Kiprusoff, who is in second spot.
Mike Smith made 26 saves for Calgary.
Rinne was especially stellar in the first period when Calgary began with their only offensive threat. He stopped Sean Monahan from the edge of the crease and made a slick pad save on a tip-in attempt by Micheal Ferland among his 12 stops.
Mark Giordano hit the crossbar on a three-on-one and TJ Brodie did the same in the final few seconds. The Flames hit iron four times in the game.
The Predators were stuck on one shot on goal through the first 10 minutes and didn't get their second until a power play that came when Calgary's Sam Bennett took a slashing minor 9:05 into the period.
They awoke as they often do in the second. Johansen opened the scoring when he knocked his own rebound in out of the air at 11:17. Fiala redirected Kyle Turris pass past Smith with 37.5 seconds left in the period.
Fiala and Turris now have seven-game point streaks and Fiala has six of his season total of eight during that period.
Nashville has a plus-26 goal differential in the second period this season.
NOTES: Calgary RW Garnet Hathaway was blindsided by an open-ice hit from Nashville D Austin Watson in the second period but returned after going off for concussion protocol. Watson received a game misconduct and had to fight Troy Brouwer as on-ice retribution. ... Travis Hamonic has unveiled a program in which he flies families in from Canada's far north -- the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon -- to see games in Calgary. The first of three families were spectators Saturday. Hamonic is from Manitoba and is of Metis ancestry. ... Healthy scratches for Nashville were RW Miikka Salomaki, LW Cody McLeod and D Matt Irwin. Healthy spectators for Calgary were C Curtis Lazar, C Freddie Hamilton and D Matt Bartkowski. ... Flames LW Jaromir Jagr returned to the lineup after missing five games with a lower-body injury. He is 39 games away from becoming the NHL's all-time leader in games played.