Weber, Predators cap perfect road trip with 2-1 victory over Flames

CALGARY - Shea Weber's second period power-play goal stood up as the winner Wednesday night as the Nashville Predators completed a perfect road trip with a 2-1 win over the Calgary Flames.

The Predators, who opened the night one point back of a wild card spot in the Western Conference, finished a four-game road trip 4-0-0, having also picked up wins in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver.

Mike Ribeiro also scored for Nashville (24-18-8). Mattias Ekholm had an assist to extend his point streak to a career-high five games (2-4-6).

Mark Giordano scored the lone goal for Calgary (21-24-2), which has lost three in a row.

The Flames were back at home after a disappointing 1-3-1 road trip that saw them fall eight points out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Calgary did mount a furious rally late in the third period but they could not get the tying goal past Hutton.

With Pekka Rinne getting the night off after facing the Canucks on Tuesday, Hutton made 26 saves — 15 in the final 20 minutes — to improve to 5-2-1.

Ramo had 22 stops to fall to 16-17-1.

Calgary closed the gap to 2-1 on Giordano's goal 5:48 into the third period.

After his first shot hit Weber, Giordano corralled the loose puck, circled back to the blueline and ripped a slap shot from 40 feet out that picked the top corner.

It ended Hutton's shutout streak at 106:02. He had 29 saves in a 4-0 win over Minnestoa in his last start on Jan. 16.

Nashville extended its lead to 2-0 on Weber's one-timer at 17:37 of the second.

The power-play goal against the Flames 29th-ranked penalty kill came after Calgary's 30th ranked power play had squandered three straight man advantages in the first period.

Nashville opened the scoring 6:21 into the game when Craig Smith burst into the Flames end and dropped a pass into the slot to Ribiero, whose shot squeaked through Ramo.

One of the hardest hits of the game came on a weird play in the second period when Dennis Wideman, making his way to the Flames bench on a line change, ended up bowling over linesman Don Henderson, who was skating backwards towards him.

At the next stoppage, it appeared Wideman skated over to where the officials were gathered to apologize but the veteran official didn't stick around, quickly skating away.

Notes: Eric Nystrom (foot) did not play for Nashville. Out of the line-up for the Flames were Joe Colborne and Josh Jooris, who both suffered minor undisclosed injuries Monday in Dallas... Weber's nine power-play goals ranks him second among defencemen.