CALGARY — Defenceman Cody Franson scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period as the Nashville Predators rallied for a 5-3 win over the Calgary Flames in National Hockey League action Saturday afternoon at Pengrowth Saddledome.

Jarome Iginla scored twice and Dion Phaneuf added a power-play goal, but the Flames lost for the fourth time in five games after coughing up a 3-2 lead by allowing three unanswered goals in the games final 22:50.

“Defensively ... is what hurt us,” said Flames coach Brent Sutter. “A disappointing loss. Up 3-2 at home, you’ve got to win. Bottom line. We had an opportunity to win and we let it get through us, or by us, because of some mistakes.

“Also, there’s a couple or three guys that, for being top-nine (forwards), need to be better for us.”

Sutter took care not to mention any of the guilty, but a scan of game sheet shows the Flames’ typically reliable second line — Rene Bourque, Daymond Langkow and Nigel Dawes — to be among the guilty. That trio was a collective minus-10.

Martin Erat, David Legwand, Marcel Goc and Dave Scatchard (empty net) also scored for the Preds, who are 6-0-1 in their last seven games and 15-3-2 in their last 20.

That hot run has allowed the Predators to muscle themselves into a four-way tie atop the Western Conference with 47 points.

Not bad for a team that had a 3-6-1 record after 10 games — a stretch that included a six-game losing streak.

“I have to admit, at the start of the season when I saw the way things were going, I thought to myself, ‘Wow, this could be a long season,’ ” said Nashville defenceman Francis Bouillon, who signed with the Predators in the off-season. “But things turned around in a hurry and we’re definitely going in the right direction now.”

The Predators opened the scoring on their first shot — Erat rifling a wrister from the slot past Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff at 4:22 of the first period.

The Preds pushed their lead to 2-0 midway through the period when Legwand popped in an Erat rebound one second after a roughing penalty to Flames forward David Moss expired.

About a minute later, Phaneuf cut the lead to 2-1 when his point shot hit a Predators defender and fluttered past Nashville goalie Dan Ellis.

The Flames surged ahead 3-2 in the second period on a pair of goals from Iginla — the first on a wicked wrist shot, then seven minutes later on a fluky play that saw the puck bank off a sliding Dan Hamhuis and into the net.

Goc evened the score with less than three minutes to play in the period. On that pivotal goal, Dawes failed to clear the puck.

Franson, given room to work with at the point, put the Predators ahead for good when his shot deflected off Langkow’s stick and past Kiprusoff.

“We didn’t do a good enough job in our zone to get pucks out,” said Sutter. “And we didn’t do a good enough job of getting into the shooting lane.”

Calgary Herald