5 THINGS - FLAMES @ BLUE JACKETS

FLAMES (16-9-2) at BLUE JACKETS (15-9-2)

US

The Flames kicked off their two-game road trip with a 3-2 victory in Chicago on Saturday night. Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, and Elias Lindholm each had two points and Mike Smith made 22 saves in the victory. Even though they outshot the Blackhawks 41-24, the Flames are looking to tighten up their game in Columbus. "Probably not our best game," Travis Hamonic said on Sunday night, "but we found a way to get through it; found a way to win." Smith was key in the victory, making several clutch saves to quell the Blackhawks surges in the second half of the game. "We were loose as a group and he bailed us out," Bill Peters said of Smith. "He was real good here tonight. He's put a lot of work in here these last two weeks, really digging in and tuning up his game, and now we're seeing the result of that ...He's a proud guy. He's a pro. He wants to contribute. We're real happy with our goaltending, both guys." ... As of Monday evening, Peters didn't have a final decision on whether it would be Smith or David Rittch in net vs. Columbus ... Defenceman Dalton Prout and winger Austin Czarnik will return to the lineup on Tuesday.Ryan Lomberg and Oliver Kylington are expected to be healthy scratches.

THEM

The Blue Jackets are sitting second in the Metropolitan Division with a 15-9-2 record and 32 points. They've gone 6-3-1 in their last 10 skates and have won two of their last three games ... Columbus is coming off of a loss, dropping a 3-2 decision to the New York Islanders on Saturday. The Blue Jackets took a 2-0 lead in the second period but three unanswered goals from the Islanders in the second half of the game sunk them. The game-winning goal came after the Blue Jackets negated their own powerplay by taking a penalty and then a missed assignment led to Casey Cizikas scoring New York's third goal. "We can't even think of taking a penalty there and then we blew a simple coverage 4-on-4," Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella told ColumbusBlueJackets.com. "It's man-on-man. Those little mistakes cost us ... It's inconceivable to me to think about even thinking about getting in a situation where they can call a penalty on you to even that out. That's what I'm upset about, a couple of small mistakes when the game's on the line and that we need to be better at." Markus Hannikainen and Pierre-Luc Dubois scored in the setback.

US VS. THEM

This is the first match-up between the Flames and Blue Jackets this season. The clubs will wrap up the season series in March when the Blue Jackets make a stop at the Scotiabank Saddledome. Calgary went 0-1-1 in last year's season series.

THIS, THAT & THE OTHER

THIS:As of Monday evening, the Flames own the best goal differential in the Pacific Division at +15. Vegas trails them at +4 and Arizona is even. The remainder of the team's in the division have a negative goal differential. THAT: Among all Flames with 15+ games this season, Mikael Backlundleads the Flames with a five-on-five Corsi-For percentage of 57.64. Rounding out the top three is Travis Hamonic (57.62%) and Matthew Tkachuk (57.14%). THE OTHER: With a goal and an assist, Sean Monahan has passed assistant GMCraig Conroy for 17th all-time in points as a Flame with 310.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Flames -RW James Neal
The forward is coming off his best performance as a Flame, picking up one assist while holding onto five-on-five possession rate of over 82% (as per Natural Stat Trick). He, Derek Ryan, and rookie Andrew Mangiapane generated plenty of chances and he and Ryan combined on the game-winning goal on the powerplay in the second period.
Blue Jackets -RW Cam Atkinson
Atkinson is in the midst of an incredible year: he's tied for the team lead in scoring with 27 points, leads Columbus with 16 goals, and is heading into Tuesday's game on a 10-game point streak. The 29-year-old is playing on the Blue Jackets' top line with Artemi Panarin and Pierre-Luc Dubois.