Winners of three consecutive games, the Calgary Flames (8-13-3, 19 points) continue their road trip – and their climb back towards respectability – on Wednesday evening when they face an old foe in the form of the Tampa Bay Lightning (13-7-2, 28 points). Tampa’s once-stacked lineup has been ravaged by injuries… but they keep finding ways to win hockey games. Can the Flames overcome the Lightning and continue their winning ways?

Today’s broadcast begins at 5 p.m. MT on Sportsnet 360 and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Yegor Sharangovich – Nazem Kadri – Joel Farabee
Jonathan Huberdeau – Morgan Frost – Matt Coronato
Connor Zary – Mikael Backlund – Blake Coleman
Ryan Lomberg – John Beecher – Adam Klapka

Yan Kuznetsov – MacKenzie Weegar
Kevin Bahl – Rasmus Andersson
Joel Hanley – Brayden Pachal

We’re projecting Dustin Wolf to start in net, backed up by Devin Cooley. Jake Bean and Dryden Hunt project to be the extra skaters.

So, uh, the Flames are playing kinda good lately. They’re 4-1-1 over their past six games and have climbed out of the NHL’s basement after spending a month there. They’re not playing perfect hockey, but their five-on-five game is really solid right now and they’re finally finding some consistency in their lines. Heck, since their 13th game – the final act of their disastrous 2-9-2 start – they’ve gone 6-4-1.

Keep an eye on Matt Coronato. He has 10 points this month and, even with a bubble on due to facial injuries suffered on that nasty hit from Mikko Rantanen, he’s been consistently dangerous on the ice.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Nikita Kucherov
Jake Guentzel – Nick Paul – Dominic James
Zemgus Girgensons – Yanni Gourde – Pontus Holmberg
Gage Goncalves – Curtis Douglas – Oliver Bjorkstrand

J.J. Moser – Darren Raddysh
Charle-Edouard D’Astous – Emil Lilleberg
Declan Carlile – Steven Santini

We’re projecting Andrei Vasilevskiy in net, backed up by Jonas Johansson. Their projected extra skaters are Maxim Groshev and Jack Finley. Per Erik Erlendsson, it sounds like Pontus Holmberg returns to the lineup, which should bump out Finley.

A lot of attention has been paid to the players that Tampa doesn’t have available. And there are a lot of them. But give Jon Cooper’s group credit: they find ways to win. They beat the Philadelphia Flyers by a 3-0 score on Monday, despite dressing six defenders we have hardly heard of.

The Flames are without Martin Pospisil, Zayne Parekh and Sam Honzek.

The Lightning are without Max Crozier, Ryan McDonagh, Victor Hedman, Erik Cernak and Brayden Point.

This is one of two clashes between these 2004 Stanley Cup finalists this season. They’ll finish out the season series in Calgary on Mar. 22.

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