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Flames-Predators Preview

Nov 29, 2009 - 8:29 PM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

Calgary (16-6-3) at Nashville (15-9-1), 8:00 p.m. EDT

While the Calgary Flames have been outstanding on the road lately, the Nashville Predators have been nearly unbeatable on home ice over the past month.

The problem for the Predators, though, is that the Flames have also had success in Nashville.

Calgary looks to extend its road point streak to 10 games and win its third straight at the Sommet Center on Monday night when it visits the Predators, who seek their ninth win in 10 home games.

The Flames (16-6-3) have climbed to the top of the Northwest Division behind their strong play on the road. They're 7-0-2 away from Calgary since Nov. 4 and have just one regulation loss in 13 road games.

The Flames are coming off Saturday's 4-3 shootout win over Columbus after opening a six-game road trip with Friday's 3-0 victory in Detroit.

Calgary has won four of five overall, but Saturday's victory wasn't easy. With the Flames trailing 3-1 with less than six minutes to play in regulation, Dustin Boyd and Nigel Dawes scored in a 1:19 span to tie it.

"We regrouped during the intermission," Calgary coach Brent Sutter said. "We talked about getting back to playing the way we did during the start of the game, for the first 30 minutes. Just keep going and going, stay patient with it and it will happen for us - and it did."

Flames captain Jarome Iginla has been leading the team's surge on the road, tallying 10 goals and five assists in the last nine away from Calgary. He also came up big against Nashville in 2008-09, recording five goals and two assists in helping the Flames sweep the four-game season series.

Calgary has won seven of nine against the Predators and three of four in Nashville, scoring 15 goals in those three victories at the Sommet Center.

Despite losing the last two meetings with the Flames in Nashville, the Predators (15-9-1) have been red-hot there lately.

Nashville is 8-1-0 at home since Oct. 29, outscoring its opponents 27-15. The Predators lone loss in that span was Friday's 3-1 defeat to St. Louis, which snapped a seven-game overall winning streak.

Nashville bounced back from that loss with Saturday's 4-1 win over Florida, the team's 12th victory in 15 games. The Predators came out strong in the final 20 minutes as J.P. Dumont, David Legwand and Joel Ward all scored third-period goals to break open a 1-all game.

"Sometimes after a long winning streak, a loss can change a team a bit so it was a big game for us," Nashville defenseman Dan Hamhuis said. "We battled back and we didn't want to lose two games at home. I'm really happy with our effort."

Both the Predators and Flames should have their top goaltenders starting this matchup after Nashville's Pekka Rinne and Calgary's Miikka Kiprusoff were each given the night off Saturday.

Rinne had made eight consecutive starts for the Predators before getting a break against the Panthers. He is 11-2-0 with a 2.10 goals-against average in 13 games since Oct. 22, but didn't have much luck against the Flames last season, going 0-1-0 with a 5.44 GAA in two starts.

Kiprusoff was in net in all four games versus Nashville last season, posting a 3.01 GAA while earning the win in each. He had made 11 straight starts for the Flames prior to Saturday, and is 3-0-1 with a 1.23 GAA and one shutout in four games since Nov. 21.