ANAHEIM -- The Calgary Flames haven't won a game at Honda Center in more than nine years. Each of the 21 regular-season and Stanley Cup Playoff games here against the Anaheim Ducks since April 25, 2006 have gone the wrong way for the Flames.
The task for the Flames on Sunday in Game 5 of their Western Conference Second Round series against the Ducks (10 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVA Sports) is pretty simple. Either the Flames defeat the Ducks and snap their losing streak in Orange County, or their 2014-15 season is over; the Ducks lead the best-of-7 series 3-1.
"Elvis is dead, the Beatles have split and life goes on," Calgary coach Bob Hartley said Sunday. "If we didn't believe we could win we would have stayed home. That's one thing. I won't coach a game in this League that I don't believe our team or our organization can't win. I will stay home.
"We can't win three games tonight. We just used a simple word in our team meeting. It is just win. We can only go back to Calgary and force a Game 6 by winning tonight, so that's all that is on our plate."
Game 6, if necessary, would be Tuesday in Calgary.
The Flames were routed in Game 1, and Game 2 might have been just as bad were it not for a fantastic effort from goaltender Karri Ramo. Since the first intermission of Game 2 Calgary has been able to keep things much closer against the Ducks.
While the Flames have relished the underdog role, they can't settle for playing well in defeat Sunday.
AT THE RINK: DUCKS
"I feel like Game 1 was a huge wake-up call for us," Calgary defenseman Kris Russell said. "We're a younger team. And not to use any excuses but the Ducks showed us what the second round is all about. Every round and every game the tempo rises, and I think we've done a better job after that first game of playing more consistent hockey. We know the tempo is going to go up tonight and we have to be ready for it."
Here are the projected lineups:
FLAMES
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Jiri Hudler
Sam Bennett - Mikael Backlund - Joe Colborne
Lance Bouma - Matt Stajan - David Jones
Brandon Bollig - Josh Jooris - Mason Raymond
Scratched: Drew Shore, Corey Potter, Markus Granlund, David Wolf, Tyler Wotherspoon
Injured: Ladislav Smid (upper body), Mark Giordano (bicep), Paul Byron (lower body), Micheal Ferland (undisclosed)
DUCKS
Patrick Maroon - Ryan Getzlaf - Corey Perry
Matt Beleskey - Ryan Kesler - Jakob Silfverberg
Tomas Fleischmann - Rickard Rakell - Andrew Cogliano
Kyle Palmieri - Nate Thompson - Tim Jackman
Hampus Lindholm - Francois Beauchemin
Scratched: James Wisniewski, Korbinian Holzer, Jiri Sekac, Jason LaBarbera, Emerson Etem
Injured: None
Status report: Hartley made a couple of lineup changes for Game 4 but did not say if he would do so for Game 5. "I felt we played our better game [in Game 4]," Hartley said. "I really liked our pace that we had to our game. In the three zones I felt we had great reads and great reactions. It just slipped away from us."
Who's hot: Gaudreau has a point in each of the past two games and five in his past five.
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