Carolina Hurricanes at Calgary Flames: Lineups and Game Discussion

It’ll be the middle game of a five-game road trip Saturday afternoon for the Carolina Hurricanes, as they take on the red-hot Calgary Flames in the Scotiabank Saddledome.

The Canes are coming off a 1-0 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks. Goalie Petr Mrazek was fantastic in that game, but Carolina couldn’t find a way to beat Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom. Still, Carolina is on a four-game point streak and will look to keep that going against the Flames.

While no one found the net against the Canucks, Sebastian Aho has been hot recently for Carolina. He scored five goals in the two games before the loss in Vancouver, and he’s been leading a Canes team that is 3-1-1 so far in the month of December.

Here is how Rod Brind’Amour’s squad will likely line up Saturday afternoon in Calgary:

Nino Niederreiter - Sebastian Aho - Teuvo Teravainen
Andrei Svechnikov - Jordan Staal - Warren Foegele
Ryan Dzingel - Lucas Wallmark - Martin Necas
Brock McGinn - Jordan Martinook - Julien Gauthier

Jaccob Slavin - Dougie Hamilton
Joel Edmundson - Brett Pesce
Jake Gardiner - Trevor van Riemsdyk

Petr Mrazek
James Reimer

Injuries and Scratches: Erik Haula (knee), Haydn Fleury (healthy)

On the other side, the Flames might just be the hottest team in all of hockey. Calgary has won seven straight games, dating back to Nov. 27. The Flames are coming off a 4-2 win over Toronto, thanks to a two-goal effort from Johnny Gaudreau.

Former Canes and Flames head coach Bill Peters resigned as Calgary’s coach on No. 29 after facing allegations of physical and verbal abuse of players, and the Flames haven’t lost a game since interim head coach Geoff Ward officially took over for Peters.

Forward Michael Frolik enters the game on a three-game goal streak, while Gaudreau has scored in two straight. Center Sean Monahan has a hot hand as well, as he is currently riding an eight-game point streak.

It’ll be a tough test for the Canes in Saturday’s matinee against Calgary. Here is how Ward’s team will line up:

Matthew Tkachuk - Elias Lindholm - Andrew Mangiapane
Dillon Dube - Sean Monahan - Mikael Backlund
Milan Lucic - Derek Ryan - Johnny Gaudreau
Tobias Rieder - Mark Jankowski - Michael Frolik

Mark Giordano - Rasmus Andersson
Noah Hanifin - Travis Hamonic
T.J. Brodie - Michael Stone

David Rittich
Cam Talbot

Injuries and Scratches: Zac Rinaldo (healthy), Oliver Kylington (healthy), Austin Czarnik (lower body), Sam Bennett (upper body)