Preview: Calgary Flames vs Anaheim Ducks 12/4/16 (28/32)

The Calgary Flames welcome the Anaheim Ducks to the Saddledome Sunday night for a Pacific Division battle. The Flames are currently tied for 7th in the West, but it’s a log jam with 5 teams tied at 26 points and the Flames are only 3 points behind the 5th place Ducks. The Flames are on a 2 game win streak with a 3-0 shut out of the Maple Leafs and a 3-2 (SO) win over the Wild. While the Flames aren’t piling up the goals, they are getting extraordinary goaltending from Chad Johnson to balance out the lack of offence. As hard as it may be to believe, Calgary has only scored more than 3 goals three times this season, all in the month of October. Normally when previewing the Ducks and Flames it’s all about the horror show that is the Honda Center, but things are different at home. Calgary is 32-21-1 at the Saddeldome and are an even 5-5 in their last 10 on home ice against the Ducks.

Anaheim had a rough start to their season as they dropped 4 straight to open the month of October. The Ducks have settled in since then going 12-5-4, including winning 3 of their last 4. Anaheim has also had very solid goaltending this season and they are one of the stingiest teams in the league. The Ducks are ranked 24th in the league having only allowed 58 goals compared to the Flames 61 goals for. The good news for the Flames is the Ducks have only scored 8 goals in their last three wins.

Here’s how the teams match-up:

Calgary Flames 3 Minnesota Wild 2 (SO)

The Flames last took the ice on Friday night and grabbed a shoot out victory over the Minnesota Wild. No one broke a finger, but Minnesota did it’s best to try and take the Flames out of the contest. Chad Johnson was terrific again and Sean Monahan scored the game winner in the shoot out to give the Flames the 3-2 win. Here’s our recap, highlights, Sean Monahan’s post game and the stats from the contest.

Anaheim Ducks 2 Edmonton Oilers 3 (OT)

The Ducks snapped a 3 game winning streak by losing to Edmonton Saturday night 3-2 in OT. Ryan Getzlaf had a 2 point night and John Gibson stopped 29 of 32 shots, but it wasn’t enough to get the Ducks a victory. Here’s the highlights.

Players to Watch

Photo by Derek Leung/Getty Images

Calgary Flames: Kris Versteeg (F). Versteeg is once again our Flames Player to Watch. The Alberta product has reignited the Flames offence since returning from injury, as he has 4 points in his last 5. Versteeg had the opening goal in the Flames game against the Wild and had the first goal of the shoot out as well. Verteeg hasn’t played against Anaheim this season, but in his last 15 games against the Ducks he has 5 points.

Photo by Harry How/Getty Images

Anaheim Ducks: Ryan Kesler (C). Kesler is an absolute Flames killer. In their only contest this season Kesler has 2 goals and last season he had 9 points (4G 5A) in 5 games against the Flames. To make matters worse, Kesler is playing extremely well on the road this year. Of his 19 points, 8 have come away from the Honda Center in 13 road games.