Flames aim to snap home skid against Coyotes

Wednesday, 01.22.2014 / 2:50 PM

By Aaron Vickers - NHL.com Correspondent / 2013-2014 At the Rink Blog

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CALGARY -- It hasn't been home sweet home for the Calgary Flames of late.

The Flames will look to snap a franchise-record seven-game losing skid on home ice when hosting the Phoenix Coyotes at Scotiabank Saddledome on Wednesday.

Since taking a 4-3 shootout win over the St. Louis Blues on Dec. 23, the Flames haven't found a winning formula on 'Dome ice and have been outscored 22-4 during their spell.

It gets worse.

Their last regulation victory at home came on Dec. 4 in a 4-1 win over the same Coyotes team they'll host as Calgary kicks off a five-game homestand.

"As a team, we've just got to go out there and play," said Matt Stajan, who signed a four-year, $12.5 million extension with the Flames on Monday. "Eventually if you work hard and play the right way, you'll get rewarded and we're overdue here. We've got to stick with it and things will happen.

"We're just not scoring goals here on home ice. When you have trouble scoring goals, you can't afford to make one or two mistakes because then that's the difference. We've got to try to generate some more offense."

Calgary may have found the cure for its home woes on the road.

Though the Flames went 0-1-1 on a quick two-game swing through Vancouver and San Jose, their performance left coach Bob Hartley something to be optimistic about.

"Obviously wins don't come as much as we would like, but at the same time it seems that there's a huge different in our games on the road than lately at home and I think that explains our home record in the last month," he said. "It's time for us to get back. The guys are feeling great. They're fresh. They're sharp. I think that we'll have a good one [Wednesday]."

Coming into Calgary, though, the Coyotes aren't concerned about the Flames' struggles on home ice. They've got their own issues to worry about.

Phoenix is just 3-7-0 in its past 10 games and has dropped 10 of its past 14.

"I haven't even thought about [Calgary's struggles]," coach Dave Tippett said. "We're concerned with what we're doing. We feel like we've played better the last three or four games. Our game has been pretty good, but that being said, we've only won two of the last four, so we're concerned about making sure we bring our game to the best of our ability and we'll see what happens there."

Here are the projected lineups Wednesday for the Flames and Coyotes:

COYOTES

Mikkel Boedker - Antoine Vermette - Lauri Korpikoski

Shane Doan - Mike Ribeiro - Radim Vrbata

Jordan Szwarz - Jeff Halpern - Kyle Chipchura

Tim Kennedy - Rob Klinkhammer - David Moss

Zbynek Michalek - Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Keith Yandle - Michael Stone

David Schlemko - Derek Morris

Mike Smith

Thomas Greiss

Scratched: Paul Bissonnette, David Rundblad