The Calgary Flames (35-26-7, 77 points) were on display in their full range on Wednesday night. There were iffy goals against and shoddy defensive play. But there was also some smart goaltending and a superb third period comeback to capture a win. They’ll need to be much more consistent against the Arizona Coyotes (33-27-8, 74 points), a divisional foe with a white-hot goalie in Darcy Kuemper.
The action starts just after 7 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

The Flames

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Mangiapane – Backlund – Tkachuk
Gaudreau – Monahan – Lindholm
Lucic – Ryan – Dube
Bennett – Jankowski – Rieder
Giordano – Brodie
Hanifin – Andersson
Forbort – Gustafsson
Cam Talbot starts for the Flames, backed up by David Rittich. The extras appear to be Michael Stone, Oliver Kylington and Zac Rinaldo yet again. Stone hasn’t played since Boston on Feb. 25, Kylington since Detroit on Feb. 23, while Rinaldo hasn’t seen a game since Feb. 17 against Anaheim.
The Flames were not great against Columbus early on, then pretty good, then really good. They won, extending a stretch where they’ve gone 4-1-1 in their last six and 6-3-1 over their last 10 games. The key thing now? Keep it going. If they can keep stringing wins together, especially at home, they’ll put some big pressure on the teams chasing them in the playoff race.

The Coyotes

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Hall – Dvorak – Keller
Garland – Hayton – Kessel
Crouse – Stepan – Hinostroza
Soderberg – Richardson – Schmaltz
Ekman-Larsson – Lyubushkin
Goligoski – Hjalmarsson
Demers – Oesterle
Darcy Kuemper starts for the Coyotes, backed by Antti Raanta. The projected scratches are Aaron Ness, Michael Grabner and Christian Fischer.
The Coyotes had a big win on Wednesday over Vancouver to kick off their three game road trip. (They’re also headed to Winnipeg before going home.) Since returning from injury, Kuemper has had two good games but hasn’t gone beast mode yet. The Flames should try their best to make his life difficult with tips and deflections, as otherwise it could be a long night.

The Numbers

Flames
Coyotes
Wins
35
32
Points
77
78
Adjusted Corsi
50.4%
48.6%
Power Play
20.7%
19.6%
Penalty Kill
82.3%
82.7%

Injury Report

The Flames are without D Juuso Valimaki (ACL surgery) and D Travis Hamonic (upper body).
The Coyotes are missing F Marian Hossa (allergic to equipment, no really) and D Jakob Chychrun (lower body).

When Last We Met

This is the final meeting between these teams this season. The Flames have taken two of the previous three meetings.

Know Thy Enemy

Here are some key Twitter peeps to follow for tonight: