Flames Game Day 81: A quick trip to the Twin Cities (6pm MT, SN West)

It’s the second-last day of the 2021-22 regular season and the Calgary Flames (50-20-10, 110 points) have two games to go! They’ll play the first half of a regular season-ending back-to-back in the Twin Cities against the Minnesota Wild (51-22-7, 109 points), one of the top teams in the Central Division and a very good team heading towards a first round date with the St. Louis Blues. It’s a tune up game for both teams, and two points and bragging rights are on the line.

The game is set for 6 p.m. MT and you can catch it on Sportsnet West, and on Sportsnet 960 The Fan!

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

@Johnny Gaudreau – @Elias Lindholm – @Matthew Tkachuk
@Andrew Mangiapane – @Mikael Backlund – @Tyler Toffoli
@Dillon Dube – @Calle Jarnkrok – @Blake Coleman
@Milan Lucic – @Ryan Carpenter – @Brett Ritchie

@Noah Hanifin – @Rasmus Andersson
@Oliver Kylington – @Chris Tanev
@Nikita Zadorov – @Erik Gudbranson

@Jacob Markstrom is expected to start in net, backed up by @Daniel Vladar. The expected scratches are @Trevor Lewis, @Connor Mackey, @Michael Stone and @Adam Ruzicka. Lewis has returned home for the birth of his child, so a different centre (possibly Ruzicka) will slot in.

The Flames are locked into first place in the Pacific Division and the last pair of games is about working on details and reinforcing good habits. They probably won’t like how many penalties they took against Nashville on Tuesday night, but otherwise their overall game was quite good and they’ll probably be looking for a similar intensity and effort level against the Wild.

Keep an eye on @Johnny Gaudreau, as he has 113 points and is third in the NHL in scoring. He’s one goal away from joining @Matthew Tkachuk and @Elias Lindholm in the 40+ goal club.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

@Kirill Kaprizov – @Ryan Hartman – @Nick Bjugstad
@Kevin Fiala – @Frederick Gaudreau – @Matthew Boldy
@Jordan Greenway – @Joel Eriksson Ek – @Marcus Foligno
@Nicolas Deslauriers – @Tyson Jost – @Brandon Duhaime

@Jonas Brodin – @Dmitry Kulikov
@Jacob Middleton – @Jordie Benn
@Jon Merrill – @Alex Goligoski

@Cam Talbot is expected to start in net, backed up by @Marc-Andre Fleury. Their expected scratch is @Connor Dewar, while a few players will be held out with some minor injuries, notably @Mathew Dumba, @Mats Zuccarello and @Jared Spurgeon.

The Wild are locked into a first round date with the St. Louis Blues, and now they’re jockeying for home ice advantage in that series. This is Minnesota’s game in hand, and they head into the evening tied with the Blues at 109 points. A win here could give the Wild a big advantage in the first round.

The Flames are without Sean Monahan.

The Wild are without Mathew Dumba, Mats Zuccarello and Jared Spurgeon.

The Flames beat Minnesota twice within a week, by scores of 7-3 and 5-1. This is the third and final regular season meeting between these teams.

Your recommended Twitter follows for tonight’s contest:

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