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Preview: Calgary Flames vs St. Louis Blues 12/20/17 (35/82): Calgary Can Take The Season Series

A Flames win will be a rare season series victory over the Blues.

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Calgary Flames vs St. Louis Blues, 7:30 PM MT, Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary AB

The Flames finally put some pucks in the net and they will look to continue that trend as the St. Louis come to town Wednesday night. Calgary got a 6 goal outburst in Sunday night’s win against Vancouver, which is wonderful seeing they had only scored 7 goals total in their 4 prior games. And if a few goals weren’t enough, they actually scored a real life, honest to goodness, power play goal. Where the Flames have had some issues lately has been between the pipes. Mike Smith started out gangbusters this season, but he has cooled off recently winning only 3 times in his last 10 starts.

The Blues have been fairly consistent all season long, but they have also struggled with scoring lately. St. Louis has 6 goals in their last 5 games, including being shut out twice. St. Louis is 1-3-0 after railing off a 4 game wining streak and are 2 for their last 29 on the power play.

This game could set itself up as an offensive breakout. Each team has scored 9 times in their 2 meetings, the last being a Calgary 7-4 win back on November 13th. Something in St. Louis’ favor is the fact that the Flames have only won twice in their last 5 tries when the Blues have visited the Saddledome.

What’s Happening With The Opposition?

Last Time Out

Calgary Flames 6 Vancouver Canucks 1

The Flames have had issues scoring, but goals weren’t an issue in a 6-1 victory over the Canucks Sunday night. Calgary’s 3rd line combined for 8 points and David Rittich got his 3rd NHL win, stopping 16 of the 17 shots he faced. Here’s our recap and the highlights from NHL.com

St. Louis Blues 0 Winnipeg Jets 4

The Blues last skated on Sunday night and dropped the back half of a back to back to the Winnipeg Jets 4-0. The Blues were out shot 46-24 and went 0-4 on the power play in the loss. St. Louis Game Time has the recap and NHL.com provides the highlights.

Players To Watch

Calgary Flames

Sam Bennett (F). Young Sam Bennett appears to have arrived. Bennett spent a good amount of this season struggling and having a hard time finding where he fit it. Those days are a thing of the past. The Ontario product has 9 points in 9 games, including a 4 pointer against the Canucks. Bennett has a goal and an assist in the 2 games the Flames have played against the Blues.

St. Louis Blues

Paul Stastny (C). The 11 year NHL vet has had a pretty slow December, registering only 3 points in the Blues’ 10 games. Where he has done well is against the Flames. Stastny has 1 goal and 3 assists in only 2 games against Calgary in 2017-18.

by Mark Parkinson