Road trip ends on high note in Nashville

FLAMES 4,

PREDATORS 3

NASHVILLE, TENN. Calgary Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan compares David Rittich’s situation to the characters of Batman and Robin, the masked hero and his faithful sidekick.

With Calgary Flames starting netminder Mike Smith on the shelf with a lower-body injury for the foreseeable future — although Smith was spotted walking normally at Bridgestone Arena on Thursday night — the 25-year-old backup is wearing the black cape for now and answered the bat signal in Thursday’s 4-3 win over the Nashville Predators.

As the locals screamed “You suck!” at Rittich after allowing a Nick Bonino goal at the 12:19 mark of the third period — a goal that brought the Predators within one and brought back memories of their Tuesday miracle comeback win over the St. Louis Blues — the Flames’ de facto starter goalie pressed on.

“I heard it,” Rittich said when asked about the chants from Nashville’s fans. “I remember it last year from the Stanley Cup playoffs. It was everywhere, on Facebook and stuff, and I knew it was coming.

“But I don’t really care. If you play in Europe, it’s always like that.”

Rittich, however, was sheepish about the way the Bonino goal was scored. He had tried to move the puck up ice but instead turned it over to Pontus Aberg, who fed Bonino in front. Oops.

“That was completely my fault,” Rittich said. “It was absolutely my bad. When I went to play the puck, it rolled over my stick and … it’s my bad. I should do something more for the boys and I’m happy I did.

“At the end of the game, I had a save.”

And not just any save. With Dougie Hamilton off for roughing in the final minutes of the third period, Rittich had a handful of terrific reads on the penalty kill. The biggest one came with 10 seconds remaining on the clock as the PK expired.

As the fans screamed for Roman Josi to “Shooooooot!” Rittich made the first stop, then sprawled across his crease to make an incredible glove save on the rebound courtesy of Kevin Fiala. The play was close enough that it had to be reviewed.

Forget Batman. How about Butch Cassidy? The save was complete robbery.

“All year, our goaltending has been our strongest position, I believe,” Flames blue-liner Travis Hamonic said. “He’s come in the last handful of games since Smitty has been down and been a rock for us. You just see how competitive he is. He probably felt bad about his miscue, but everyone has mistakes.”

The Flames had a few mistakes as a team on this six-game sojourn, including Tuesday’s nasty 5-2 loss to the Boston Bruins.

But Thursday’s victory not only snapped Pekka Rinne’s Vezinaesque personal point streak at 11 games, it improved Calgary to 3020-8, good for third place in the Pacific Division. Calgary finished the trip 4-2.

Perhaps the other turning point for the Flames on Thursday was when they scored a five-on-three goal, the second of its kind this season. Hamilton labelled a shot top shelf with 5:32remaining in the second period to knot the score 2-2.

Another key moment was the killing off of a four-minute penalty that locked up their top goal-scorer, Sean Monahan, after he clipped Ryan Ellis in his bearded face. The Flames killed each of their five penalties on the night.

“We played 35 minutes against a really good team in Boston and that’s not enough,” Gulutzan said. “We talked about playing 60 minutes — a little cliche-ish, but that was the battle cry. Who could play the hardest?’’

Turns out it was Rittich, who made 29 saves for his sixth win of the season.

But full marks should also go to Matthew Tkachuk who scored his fourth goal in four games, a key power-play marker that knotted the score 1-1 with 44 seconds left in the first period. The marker, another chip-in off a Mark Giordano shot, was Calgary’s response to Nashville’s Ryan Johansen, who put the Preds on the board first.

Hamilton’s goal in the second period negated a Yannick Weber go-ahead strike halfway through that frame.

The eventual game-winner came off the stick of Curtis Lazar at 10:14 on what could best be described as a softy from the top of the circle. No doubt Rinne would want that one back.

As for Rittich, he’s likely earned another start on Saturday against the Florida Panthers at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

“It’s different being Robin than Batman,” Gulutzan said of Rittich. “Those are two different guys. Right now, he’s in a Batman role. This is a good growth time for him.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Rittich said with a chuckle when Gulutzan’s analogy was explained to him following the victory. “Sorry.”