Mike Smith starts, Mikael Backlund out for Saturday’s game

The Calgary Flames are riding their hot hand in net on Saturday night, but will face a big test without their top two-way center.

Flames netminder Mike Smith will start against Nashville on Saturday night, which presumably means David Rittich starts on Sunday night in Edmonton. Smith has been very sharp recently and is riding a five-game winning streak. On the season he’s posted a 10-7-1 record with a 2.93 goals against average and 0.892 save percentage, really turning it around after a really shaky start.

Mikael Backlund was injured in the waning moments of Thursday night’s 2-0 win over Minnesota. He was hit by Matt Dumba and immediately left the ice. It’s unclear what precisely his injury is, but it’s probably safe to call it an upper body injury.

Courtesy our pal Pat Steinberg, lines from Friday’s practice:

Lomberg is definitely unavailable for Saturday night due to his suspension, so the Flames will most likely be recalling a forward from the American Hockey League’s Stockton Heat. If Mark Giordano is suspended, presumably Dalton Prout would slide in and pairings would be jumbled around.