CALGARY (CP) - Barry Trotz thinks Calgary coach Darryl Sutter is keeping the NHL in the dark ages.
Trotz's reeling Nashville Predators picked up a giant 3-1 victory Saturday night over Sutter's Flames, but had to endure a brawl before getting through it.
With three seconds to play, Sutter sent out the rugged foursome of defenceman Robyn Regehr to take the draw along with left-winger Krzysztof Oliwa, and defencemen Rhett Warrener and Mike Commodore.
A brawl quickly ensued.
``They had four puppets out there to do something,'' Trotz said.
``Obviously, that's pre-meditated. You look over and Darryl's talking to Oliwa, and he's got Regehr taking the draw. I just told our guys to back off. Obviously, we're trying to clean up the game and Sutsy keeps putting it back in the 1930s.''
Regehr and Oliwa were the main aggressors in the skirmish. Eventually, goalies Tomas Vokoun and Miikka Kiprusoff got into a fight.
Afterwards, the coaches from each team angrily yelled across the glass at each other.
``Obviously, the league should get into it. I don't really know what got them upset but there will be a time and a place,'' said Trotz. ``We can play payback. We didn't have some of our bigger guys in there tonight and we have a long memory.''
Greg Johnson was one of the Predators on the ice as time expired and found himself down on the ice being hammered on by Regeher.
``It's part of the game, it happens, I'm just glad we got the two points,'' said Johnson, sporting fresh stitches under his eye. ``I definitely don't make a living out of that kind of thing as you can see, but what can you do. We just wanted to kill off those last couple seconds.''
Sutter dismissed any intentions.
``We were going to be a man short, it's no big deal, there's two seconds left in the hockey game. Drop the puck, nothing happens, that's it. Certainly, there was no message,'' he said.
Commodore said it was the result of a frustrating night for his club, which had been on a seven-game unbeaten streak.
``Emotions were running high, it was a big game for us, we were pumped up for it all night,'' Commodore said. ``The late show on Hockey Night in Canada, you want to put on a good show.
``Although we played pretty well, you get frustrated, that's part of hockey, it's not the first time and it's definitely not the last time that stuff is going to happen.''
Martin Erat put Nashville ahead for good at 17:35 of the second period.
After getting the puck from Vladimir Orszagh behind the Flames net, Erat circled out front untouched and patiently waited for Kiprusoff to go down before scoring his 14th goal of the season.
Scott Hartnell and Sergei Zholtok, into an empty net, also scored for Nashville (34-27-11-3).
The Predators began the evening barely hanging onto the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference but moved past the St. Louis Blues into seventh spot.
Jarome Iginla scored his 38th of the season for Calgary (38-27-7-3). The loss snapped a seven-game unbeaten streak for the Flames and stalled their pursuit of Vancouver and Dallas in the West.
The Canucks and Stars are tied for fourth place at 89 points with the Flames in sixth place with 86 points, four points better than Nashville.
Despite playing the night before in Edmonton, the Predators looked like the more energetic team, especially in the third period as they held the Flames without a shot for the first 13 minutes and a total of just two for the period.
``They were a little more hungry and it showed,'' said Iginla. ``We were up 1-0 and we give up a goal with a second left in the first period, that was desperation on their part hanging in there and finding a way to get that important goal.''