FGD: the (prospect) Battle in Red Deer (7pm MT)

Three days after the Calgary Flames’ prospects put down an impressive performance against the Edmonton Oilers prospects, they’ll try to do it again slightly up the road. On Sunday afternoon the Baby Flames beat the Baby Oilers 7-3 at the Scotiabank Saddledome. Tonight they try to do so in Red Deer’s Enmax Centrium in the return engagement.

The puck drops just after 7 p.m. MT on various Flames-related streaming outlets (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook) and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

The players that are going to China are now in Shenzhen. The remainder of the players who are going to be in main camp are awaiting medicals. That means it’s the prospects’ time to shine! After laying a drubbing on the Oilers prospects on Sunday afternoon, the Flames are hoping to keep that train rolling along into main camp.

Projected lines for tonight:

Pollock (60) – Gawdin (80) – Phillips (47)
Zavgorodniy (78) – Dube (59) – McMurtry (79)
Ernst (97) – Ruzicka (63) – Joly (52)
Ehliz (50) – Roman (65) – Fischer (48)

Valimaki (42) – Ollas Mattsson (68)
Healey (85) – Pachal (73)
Merezhko (98) – Rippon (87)

Tyler Parsons and Mason McDonald will split duties in net. It sounds like Andrew Mangiapane and Spencer Foo rotate out, joining Oliver Kylington and Jake Christiansen on the sidelines.

Playing against prospective NHLers in Calgary on Sunday, the Oilers’ kids lost 7-3. Playing against decidedly non-prospective NHLers in Edmonton against the NAIT/Grant McEwan All-Stars, the Oilers fared considerably better – winning 9-1.

Projected lines from Oilers morning skate:

Gust (51) – McLeod (70) – Yamamoto (56)
Maksimov (72) – Larkin (64) – Vesey (68)
Gambardella (45) – Vesel (53) – Hebig (42)
Van Stralen (62) – Esposito (55) – Polei (41)

Crevier-Morin (86) – Bear (74)
Kulevich (88) – Lagesson (89)
Wilson (81) – Day (90)

Rodrigue (60) starts
Skinner (50)

Not expected to dress are Dylan Wells, Evan Bouchard, Caleb Jones, Cooper Marody, Tyler Benson and the injured Ostap Safin.

Presuming the Flames go with a similar lineup as they did on Sunday, keep an eye on the secondary offensive group for the Flames: Matthew Phillips, Glenn Gawdin and Brett Pollock. They were productive offensively, but they were quite iffy in their own end. If they want to stick around for awhile in camp, they’ll need to have as impressive a 200-foot performance as the Mangiapane-Dube-Foo trio did on Sunday.