After a five game road trip that featured both highs and lows for the group, the Calgary Flames (9-15-4, 22 points) are back at home and hoping to get back into the win column when they face the Minnesota Wild (15-7-5, 35 points). The Flames slid back into 32nd place with a loss on Tuesday in Nashville. The Wild? They’re on a bit of a tear lately and will be a big test.

Today’s broadcast begins at 7 p.m. MT on Sportsnet One 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 – Jake Bean

Via Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg at the rink: We’re projecting Dustin Wolf to start in net, backed up by Devin Cooley. The projected extras look to be Brayden Pachal and Dryden Hunt.

The Flames are back at home after a weird road trip. Not just in terms of the composition of the trip – Vancouver, Tampa, Florida, Carolina and Nashville – or its length, but also in terms of how up and down the team was. They were awesome against Vancouver, and quite good against Florida and Carolina. They were overwhelmed against Tampa, and faded in the back half of their game against Nashville. The Flames have found a bit of a rhythm lately: even if they’re not going to claw back into the post-season picture, it’s important for them to maintain that mojo.

Y’know who was sharp on the road trip? Nazem Kadri (six points) and Rasmus Andersson (five points). Keep an eye out for them against the Wild.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Kirill Kaprizov – Ryan Hartman – Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson – Joel Eriksson Ek – Matt Boldy
Yakov Trenin – Nico Sturm – Vladimir Tarasenko
Liam Ohgren – Ben Jones – Tyler Pitlick

Jonas Brodin – Brock Faber
Jacob Middleton – Jared Spurgeon
Zeev Buium – Zach Bogosian

Per the Athletic’s Joe Smith at the rink, Jonas Gustavsson is slated to start, backed up by Jesper Wallstedt. The projected extra skaters are Hunter Haight and Daemon Hunt. Wallstedt shut the Flames out back on Nov. 9, and that was the first of a run of four shutouts over his past six appearances. He’s having a fantastic season so far, with a 1.74 goals against average and .944 save percentage over 10 appearances. So the Flames are potentially dodging a bullet with Gustavsson starting instead.

The Wild lost in regulation on Nov. 6. Since then, they’ve played 12 games. They’ve gone 10-0-2 and won a lot of different ways. They’ve won close games. They’ve blown teams out. They’ve been good in a lot of different ways. They’re a very good hockey team.

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

The Wild are without Marcus Foligno, Marco Rossi, Vinnie Hinostroza and Danila Yurov.

This is the second of three clashes between these teams in 2025-26. The Wild beat the Flames 2-0 back in November. They’ll close out the season series on Jan. 29 in Minnesota.

This article is a presentation of Platinum Mitsubishi, family owned and operated by lifelong Calgarians. Home of the industry-leading 10-year, 160,000-kilometre powertrain warranty. Check out their showroom at 2720 Barlow Trail NE or online at www.mitsu.ca.