Calgary Flames Game Day 26: An early outing against the Minnesota Wild (6pm MT, SNW/960)

The Calgary Flames (12-10-3, 27 points) won a game on Saturday. Then they won another game on Monday. They play the Minnesota Wild (13-9-2, 28 points) on Wednesday night. If they win this game, it’s three in a row, which would be their first bonafide winning streak since they won their first three games of the season.

The broadcast begins at 6 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan! It’s an early game, so duck out of work early and grab a pocket dog or nachos for dinner at the game.

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

Huberdeau – Lindholm – Toffoli
Dube – Kadri – Mangiapane
Ruzicka – Backlund – Coleman
Lucic – Rooney – Lewis

Hanifin – Andersson
Weegar – Tanev
Zadorov – Stone

It’s looking like Dan Vladar starts again, backed up by Jacob Markstrom (but we’ll see at warm-ups). The projected extras are Connor Mackey and Brett Ritchie.

Early this season, the Flames were playing a flawed game and winning. Later on, because hockey is cruel sometimes, they were playing pretty well but finding ways to lose. But now, they’re generally playing well and finding ways to win. They’re definitely not playing to their full potential – Elias Lindholm singled out their second period lull in Monday’s game when speaking to the media afterwards – but they’re trending in the right direction, and doing more good than bad.

On Saturday, Adam Ruzicka (and Mikael Backlund) broke out for three points. On Monday, it was Nazem Kadri’s turn. Which Flame will have a breakout evening against Minnesota?

Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff:

Marc-Andre Fleury starts, backed up by Filip Gustavsson. Their extas are Andrej Sustr and Joseph Cramarossa.

The Wild are kind of all over the place this season. They’re currently on a four game winning streak, with the last two being in shootouts. Their last six games have featured six (or more) goals, and they’ve allowed three or more in each of their last five games. But they’re a pretty good offensive team, and they’ve been able to score four, five or six goals this season with regularity.

The Wild can be beaten with a smart, disciplined, structured game. But if you take too many penalties or open up too much to play run and gun, they’ll hurt you on the scoreboard. Oh, and they lead the NHL in shorthanded goals so… watch out for that.

The Flames are without Oliver Kylington.

The Wild are without Ryan Hartman, Jonas Brodin and Brandon Duhaime.

This is the first of three games between these clubs this season. The Flames won twice in regulation and lost once in overtime against Minnesota last season, capturing five of a possible six points in the process.

Here are your recommended follows from Wild Twitter: