Calgary Flames vs Pittsburgh Penguins Preview 3/5/2016

Calgary Flames @ Pittsburgh Penguins, 3 PM ET, CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, PA

The Calgary Flames come cruising into Pittsburgh for a rare Saturday afternoon tilt with the Penguins. Calgary has lost 7 in a row and are sinking faster to the bottom of the West than anyone expected. Pittsburgh is 3-2 in their last 5, however, they have outscored their opponents 17-10 over that stretch. Calgary is 0-3 on their current East coast swing, but the glass half full aspect says Calgary did beat Pittsburgh back on November 7th by the score of 5-2 which stopped a 9 game skid against the Penguins. As we’ve seen this season, Calgary historically is bad against the East and Pittsburgh is no exception. The Flames own a career 11-28-10 record when visiting the Penguins and are on a current 3 game losing streak at the CONSOL Energy Center. Calgary has their hands full as Marc-Andre Fleury has only given up 2 goals in his last 3 starts. Puck drop is at 3 PM, here’s how the teams match-up:

Calgary’s last stop was at the lowly Buffalo Sabres on Thursday and the Flames dropped that contest 6-3. It was another tough one for the weary Jonas Hiller as he surrendered 5 goals on 34 shots. In giving up 5 goals, the Flames became one of two NHL teams this season to give up 200+ goals. On the bright side, Mikael Backlund scored again and rookie Garnet Hathaway picked up his first career assists (2) on goals by Sean Monahan and Backlund. Here’s the highlights:

The Pittsburgh Penguins last skated on Thursday night and beat the NY Rangers 4-1. Evgeni Malkin paced the Penguins with a goal and 2 assists, while Sidney Crosby tucked in his team leading 26th goal of the season. Marc-Andre Fleury back stopped the win by stopping 27 of 28 shots. Here’s the highlights:

Calgary Flames Projected Lines (these are the projected line and can change at any time up until puck drops)

Scratches: Dennis Wideman (Susp)

Injuries: Karri Ramo, Ladislav Smid

Pittsburgh Penguins Projected Lineup (these are the projected lines and can be changed any time before the puck drop)

Scratches: None

Injuries: Pascal Dupuis, Conor Sheary, Ben Lovejoy, Beau Bennett,

Eric Fehr

by Mark Parkinson