Calgary Flames @ St. Louis Blues, 1 PM MT, Enterprise Center, St. Louis MO

TV: SNW

Radio: Sportsnet 960

Calgary Flames 21-10-2 (44 pts) - St. Louis Blues 12-14-4 (28 pts)

NHL Standings

Did you enjoy that win over the Minnesota Wild? Good. You can forget about it and hitch a ride to St. Louis because there’s no rest for this Calgary team. In a fairly rare weekend back to back, the Flames will play another afternoon game on Sunday, this one against the St. Louis Blues.

The Flames come into this contest one of the hottest teams in the NHL. Since a 3-2 setback to the Montreal Canadiens back on Nov. 15th the Flames are 11-2-1. You read that correctly, no misprint. The Flames are running roughshod over the NHL. They are in 1st in the Pacific and only 1 point out of first place in the Western Conference and they are showing no signs of slowing down. The Flames have 3 players in the Top 30 in scoring and are the only squad in the NHL with five 30+ point scorers. Oh and they have a hot goaltender. David Rittich now has 10 wins, including winning 3 out of his last 5 starts. (Though it’s very likely Jon Gillies will get his first start of the season)

St. Louis comes into this contest 5-4-1 in their last 10 games and they’ve liked extra time lately. St. Louis has gone to a shoot out or OT 3 times in that 10 game stretch, losing in a shoot out and winning twice in OT. The Blues are struggling to put pucks in the net AND keeping them out. The Blues are 28th in the NHL in GF (86, compare that to Calgary’s 115) and they’ve allowed the opposition to score on them 99 times, good for 17th in NHL. Offence has been rare in St. Louis lately with the Blues scoring 4 or more goals only four times in the last month, one of those was a 8-4 loss to Winnipeg.

This is the first of two games over a six day stretch for these two teams and trips to St. Louis haven’t been kind to the Flames. Calgary is 2-8-0 in their 10 visits to the Gateway To The West and the Dome has only been a little better. The Flames are 4-6-0 in their last 10 games at home against the Blues.

Starting Goalies (E=Expected, C=Confirmed)

Flames: Gillies (E)- 0-0-0, 0.00 GAA, 1.000 Save%

Blues: Allen (E)- 10-8-4, 3.10 GAA, .901 Save%

What’s Happening With The Opposition?

St. Louis Blues Coverage: St. Louis Game Time

Last Time Out

Calgary Flames 2 Minnesota Wild 1

St. Louis Blues 4 Colorado Avalanche 3 (OT)

Players To Watch

Calgary Flames

Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports

Mark Giordano (D): 5G - 28A, 9 points in last 4 games

St. Louis Blues

Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

David Perron (F): 10G - 8A, 3 points in last 3 games