Game 47 Preview – Sharks vs Flames

One of several games the Flames are going to have to find a way to win to slowly get back into the playoff race. The Flames are an underdog and as good as the home record is they need to find a way to get respectable on the road.

Like the Kings the other night this is the first match-up of the season. California killed the Flames last year in the late season. The Flames are going to need a little luck along with a full effort to get the points they need out of the Golden State.

The Sharks placement on the standings this year has been deceptive because they have for almost the whole season held games in hand. They came out a little slow but make no mistake on this team, one of the best in the west.

Miikka Kiprusoff is the likely starter tonight in the Shark tank but it is an injured Flames squad that will be in front of him. Still on the scratch list is Scott Hannan, Alex Tanguay, David Moss, Matt Stajan and Derek Smith. The Sharks are without Colin White and Martin Havlat. The Flames will have a challenge on their hands.

The Flames are certainly the underdog in this game but they have to find ways to win games like these to get themselves back into playoff position. They let a few lower end teams beat them earlier in the season and they have to offset it with big wins against more powerful teams.

A possibile vulnerability of the Sharks is their Penalty Kill which is surprisingly one of the worst in the NHL at 28th, currently sitting at 77.4% If the addition of Mike Cammalleri adds some punch to the Flames PP it may be an area the Flames can exploit the Sharks on.

Here is your match-up

	Stats
46	GP	42
21	W	25
20	L	12
5	OT	5
47	P	55
0.511	P%	0.655
2.39	G/G	2.81
2.80	GA/G	2.31
17.1	PP%	17.4
82.2	PK%	77.4
27.7	S/G	34.7
30.5	SA/G	28.7
45.1	FO%	53.3

by M Smith