CALGARY, Alberta (AP) -- Barry Trotz thinks Calgary coach Darryl

Sutter is sending the NHL back into its dark ages.

After Sergei Zholtok scored an empty-net goal with 2.9 seconds

remaining in the Nashville Predators' 3-1 win over the Flames on

Saturday night, Sutter sent out the rugged foursome of defenseman

Robyn Regehr, to take the faceoff, left-wing Krzysztof Oliwa, and

defensemen Rhett Warrener and Mike Commodore.

A brawl quickly ensued.

"They had four puppets out there to do something," Predators

coach Trotz said. "Obviously, that's premeditated. 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."

Several skirmishes took place simultaneously, including one between the goalies, Tomas Vokoun of Nashville and Miikka Kiprusoff of Calgary.

Flames assistant coach Rich Preston and Trotz could be seen

angrily yelling at each other from their respective benches.

"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," Trotz

said. "We can play payback. We didn't have some of our bigger guys

in there tonight, and we have a long memory."

Sutter denied there were any bad intentions.

"We were going to be a man short, it's no big deal, there's two

seconds left in the hockey game," Sutter said. "Drop the puck,

nothing happens, that's it. Certainly, there was no message."

Commodore said it was the result of a frustrating night for

Calgary, which had its seven-game unbeaten streak snapped.

"Emotions were running high, it was a big game for us, we were pumped up for it all night," he said. "It's not the first time and it's definitely not the last time that stuff is going to happen."

Martin Erat scored the go-ahead goal at 17:35 of the second

period and Scott Hartnell also scored for the Predators, who moved

into seventh place in the Western Conference playoff race with 82

points, a point ahead of St. Louis. The Blues lost to Dallas

earlier Saturday. Nashville trails the Flames by four points for

sixth place.

Jarome Iginla scored his 38th of the season for Calgary, which

trails Dallas and Vancouver by three points for fifth place in the

West.

Erat took a pass from Vladimir Orszagh behind the Flames' net,

then circled out front and patiently waited for Kiprusoff to go

down before scoring his 14th of the season over Kiprusoff's

shoulder.

Despite having played Edmonton on Friday, the Predators looked more

energetic, especially in the third period, when they held the Flames

without a shot for the first 13 minutes and a total of just two for

the period.

Nashville held a 31-21 edge in shots.

Vokoun started his 18th game in the past 19 and rebounded with

an excellent outing after giving up five goals against Edmonton in

the Predators' 5-4 loss to the Oilers.

Nashville tied it at 1-all with less than a second left in the

first period on a goal by Hartnell.

Calgary scored 3:23 in when Steve Montador's shot from the blue

line was tipped through Vokoun's pads by Iginla in the slot.

"They were a little more hungry, and it showed," Iginla said.

"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."

Game notes

Commodore returned to the lineup after

missing 19 games with a separated shoulder. D Andrew Ference was a

healthy scratch. ... Nashville D Mark Eaton, the team's leader in

plus-minus (plus-10), returned after missing four games with back

spasms ... The Flames have had seven sellouts in a row and 17 on

the season.