Winners of two of three games so far on their five game road trip, the Calgary Flames (9-14-3, 21 points) are back in action on Sunday afternoon! But they’ll face a pretty big test in the form of the Carolina Hurricanes (15-7-2, 32 points), one of the NHL’s top teams. Can the Flames keep their winning ways going? Or will they be extinguished by the ‘Canes?

Today’s broadcast begins at 3 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan. (Sportsnet Pacific, Ontario and East will join this game in progress after the conclusion of Anaheim/Chicago.)

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 Devin Cooley to get his second consecutive start, backed up by Dustin Wolf. The projected extras look to be Jake Bean and Dryden Hunt. Cooley’s been excellent lately.

The good news: the Flames have won four of their last five games, and posted a 5-2-1 record over their last eight games. The bad news is that, based on points percentage, they’re still dead-last in the 32-team NHL. That’s a testament to just how deep a hole they dug themselves with their rough start to the season. Even with a run of strong play, the Flames are still well outside the playoff pack.

Keep an eye on Rasmus Andersson, who’s (quietly) been one of the NHL’s better producing defencemen this season.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Andrei Svechnikov – Sebastian Aho – Seth Jarvis
Nikolaj Ehlers – Logan Stankoven – Jackson Blake
William Carrier – Jordan Staal – Jordan Martinook
Taylor Hall – Mark Jankowski – Eric Robinson

K’Andre Miller – Sean Walker
Shayne Gostisbehere – Jalen Chatfield
Alexander Nikishin – Joel Nystrom

Brandon Bussi is slated to start in net, per reports from the rink, backed up by Frederik Andersen. Bussi’s coming off wins in his last couple starts, but the Hurricanes seem to be alternating their netminders lately so this is a bit of a departure from their recent trends. Their projected extra skater is Mike Reilly.

Since their four-game winning streak in early November, Carolina has alternated wins and losses: they’re 4-3-2 over their last night outings. However, they’re getting some star performances from their star players. Seth Jarvis has 15 goals. Sebastian Aho is a point per game. Shayne Gostisbehere has missed some games but is producing at over a point per game pace.

When your stars are stars, you have a good chance to win hockey games, even when the rest of your game isn’t working as desired.

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

The Hurricanes are without Jaccob Slavin, Charles-Alexis Legault, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Pyotr Kochetkov.

This is the first of two clashes between the Flames and these Eastern Conference foes. They’ll close out the season series back in Calgary on Mar. 7, the day after the trade deadline.

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