NHL Preview: Canucks, Flames Tangle in Calgary

Vancouver Canucks at Calgary Flames

This is a fairly big clash between teams at opposite ends of the Northwest Division. The Flames have been decent of late going 3-2-2 over their last seven, but have failed to make up much ground in the Western Conference standings and find themselves out of a playoff spot — and only the woeful Edmonton Oilers are keeping Calgary from the divisional basement.

Last game out, though, Calgary did create some positives. In a 3-0 win over the Minnesota Wild, Calgary captain Jarome Iginla put forth another strong performance, setting up defenceman Jay Bouwmeester for a goal before scoring himself early in the second period. Iginla now has seven goals in his last seven games and appears to have finally broken out of his early-season slump.

In net, Mikka Kiprusoff has been great for the Flames. Kipper stopped 32 of 32 shots against Minnesota for just his third shutout of the year — that performance came on the heels of a few great individual efforts during Calgary’s recent five-game Eastern road swing. Against Pittsburgh, Kiprusoff stopped 39 of 42 shots — one of which was a penalty shot save against Sidney Crosby — and against Philly, he was just as good. He stopped 34 of 36 shots as the Flames got a much-needed shootout win against the Flyers.

As for the Canucks, things are steady as she goes. The team managed to rebound from a mini four-game losing streak by posting back-to-back wins over the Colorado Avalanche and San Jose Sharks. The win against San Jose was arguably Vancouver’s finest of the year — they thoroughly dominated San Jose in a 6-1 win, outplaying the Sharks in nearly every facet of the game. Two goals from Mikael Samuelsson — he also finished tied for the team lead with a plus-3 rating on the right — and single markers from Keith Ballard, Alex Burrows, Jeff Tambellini and Raffi Torres were all the goals Vancouver needed as netminder Roberto Luongo was on his game. Luongo stopped 32 of 33 shots for one of his best performances of the year, which included a second period where he stopped all 16 San Jose shots (the Sharks out-shot the Canucks 16-6 in the frame).

Tonight’s game should be a testy affair. The Flames haven’t been great at home this year (6-5-0) and need to start winning games at the Saddledome if they hope to get back into the playoff picture. Getting a home win against a big divisional opponent like Vancouver — that’s even more crucial to Calgary’s success.