Preview: Hard Hitting Jakub Nakladal & The Flames Close Out The Home Schedule With The Canucks

Vancouver Canucks @ Calgary Flames, 9 PM ET, Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary, Alberta

Well, this is it. The Flames will play their final home game of the season against their hated rivals the Vancouver Canucks. Calgary comes into this contest 2-3 in their last 5, while the Canucks are winners of 3 out of their last 4. The Flames are 3-1 against Vancouver this season, 1-1 at the Dome and are being out scored 7-6 in the two games at the Saddledome. Vancouver finds themselves 16-16-8 on the road this season (which is much better than their home record), but they have struggled over the years when visiting the Flames. Calgary has DOMINATED the 'Nucks at home to the tune of 83-51-15 and have outscored them 3.7-2.9. Stats aside, Flames and Canucks games are always exciting and if the Flames can send Vancouver out of Calgary with a loss to take the season series 4-1, then that's a good way to wind down a disappointing season. Here's how the teams match-up:

The Flames last played on Tuesday night and lost to the LA Kings in OT 5-4. The Flames blew leads throughout the game and couldn’t put Milan Lucic and the Kings away. Joni Ortio had a tough night stopping 21 of 26 shots he faced in the loss. While Mark Giordano and Deryk Engelland each had 2 points, Hunter Shinkaruk was the story. The hometown kid was playing in Calgary for the first time and in front of his family and he scored the second goal of the game for Calgary. Here’s the highlights:

Vancouver went to Edmonton on Wednesday and got dominated by the Oilers 6-2. Jacob Markstrom got the start and wasn’t very effective. The Vancouver net minder gave up 6 goals on 38 shots. Matt Bartkowski and Bo Horvat had the Canucks only two markers of the game. Here’s the highlights:

Starting Goalies

Calgary Flames

Joni Ortio (expected): 6-9-5, GAA: 2.74, SV% .903

Vancouver Canucks

Ryan Miller (expected): 17-23-9, 2.74 GAA: 2.04, SV% .903

Players To Watch

Calgary Flames: Joe Colborne, 8 points in last 5 games (2 goals, 6 assists)

Vancouver Canucks: Bo Horvat, 5 points in last 5 games (2 goals, 3 assists)

Injuries

Calgary Flames: Karri Ramo, Dennis Wideman, Ladislav Smid, Michael Frolik , Lance Bouma

Vancouver Canucks: Sven Baertschi, Radim Vrbata, Luca Sbisa, Brandon Sutter, Alexander Edler

by Mark Parkinson