FGD 77: A battle with the Stars (7:30pm MT, SN One)

It’s a potential playoff preview tonight at the Saddledome!

The Calgary Flames (47-22-7, 101 points) host the Dallas Stars (39-31-6, 84 points). The Flames lead the Pacific Division while the Stars hold down the first wildcard spot, just three points ahead of the second wildcard spot that would earn them a first round date with the Flames.

The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. on Sportsnet One and Sportsnet 960 The Fan. The Flames opened as a slight (-165) favourite on OddsShark’s moneyline.

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:

David Rittich jumps back in net after Mike Smith started for three in a row – Rittich was under the weather over the weekend, so it made some sense to give Smith some work. The scratches will be the typical crew of Dalton Prout, Oliver Kylington, Michael Stone and Alan Quine, while Sam Bennett remains sidelined with an upper body injury. The forward lines are shuffled up as the Flames coaching staff tries out a few different looks.

The Flames have won six of their last eight outings. They have a magic number of 3.5 to clinch Pacific Division/Western Conference top spot. A win tonight can move the Flames from being in pretty good divisional shape to being almost assured of the top spot in the West/division. If the Flames can take care of their own business, their last week could be completely irrelevant to their playoff placement.

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:

Ben Bishop starts for the Stars, backed up by Anton Khudobin. The projected scratches are Taylor Fedun, Julius Honka, Joel L’Esperance and Brett Ritchie.

The Stars got a big win in Winnipeg on Monday night in a likely first round preview. They were all the Jets could handle and they looked poised, energetic and very strong. As much credit as Arizona’s gotten for being in the playoff mix with all their injuries, take a look at what Dallas has done: they’re reasonably comfortable right now despite missing a rotating handful of regular blueliners for basically the entire season.

The Flames are without Sam Bennett.

The Stars are without Marc Methot, Stephen Johns, Martin Hanzal, Tyler Pitlick and Mats Zuccarello.

This is the third and final regular season meeting between these teams. The Flames lost both their previous meetings – once in regulation and once in overtime. The Stars are the only Western Conference team that the Flames have not beaten yet this season.

Your Stars Twitter follows for tonight:

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