The Nashville Predators hadn’t won a game in 21 days. In front of the 20th sellout crowd of the season inside Bridgestone Arena, not only did they end that streak but they recorded some milestones as well.
Nashville beat the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night, 4-3, behind goals from David Legwand, Nick Spaling, Austin Watson and Matt Halischuk. Legwand’s goal was the 200th of his NHL career while Watson’s was the first of his.
Even young Swedish phenom Filip Forsberg tallied his first NHL point by way of the secondary assist on Legwand’s marker.
The Detroit, Michigan, native’s 200th career goal came at the 14:39 mark of the opening period as he stuffed a Shea Weber blast past Miikka Kiprusoff for his team-leading 12th goal of the year and 11th all-time against the Flames.
“Congrats to Leggy,” Watson said. “That’s something pretty incredible, 200 goals. It felt hard enough to get the first one. It’s an awesome milestone for him and nice to share a moment here.”
Nashville would notch a power play tally from Spaling at the end of the second period to re-tie the game headed into the intermission. Watson and Halischuk would then add goals in the third to seal Calgary’s fate.
The Flames tried to make things interesting when Roman Cervenka scored his second of the game in the final minutes of the contest but it wasn’t enough on this night.
Not only was he the team’s first draft pick but Legwand has played at least one game in every Predators season since the team’s inception. He scored his first goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs in his fifth ever game on October 11, 1999 and is now the franchise’s all-time leader in the category with an even 200.
Recently traded winger Martin Erat is second on the all-time list with 163 but captain Shea Weber is the closest active-Predator with 107.
The Predators can help end their arch-rival’s playoff hopes when they travel to Detroit on Thursday to play the Red Wings.
Puck drops at 6:30pm Central.
—
PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Fuqua (used with permission)