5 THINGS - FLAMES VS. SENATORS
Flames wrap up two-game home stand against Senators
Brendan Parker gets you ready for game with Ottawa
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GAME DAY VIDEO
Game Day with Brendan Parker
Pregame Interviews
GAME DAY FEATURES
'Fastball And A Change-up' - Toffoli
Projected Lineup
Say What: 'Consummate Team Guy'
STAT PACK
Media Game Notes
Scoring Leaders
2022-23 Head-to-Head Stats
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Leading Scorers:
Flames:
Points - Tyler Toffoli (55)
Goals - Toffoli (26)
Senators:
Points - Tim Stützle (70)
Goals - Stützle (31)
Special Teams:
Flames:
PP - 19.3% (23rd) / PK - 81.3% (12th)
Senators:
PP - 23.8% (6th) / PK - 83.2% (3rd)
Advanced Stats:
Flames:
Shot Attempts: 57.18% (2nd)
High-Danger Chances: 52.40% (14th)
Senators:
Shot Attempts: 51.12% (10th)
High-Danger Chances: 52.78% (12th)
Down to 16.
With the regular season hitting the home stretch, the Flames continue to push for a playoff spot, sitting six points behind the Jets for the final wildcard spot in the Western Conference.
Friday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome was a chance to tighten the gap but, in the end, it was the visiting Anaheim Ducks who played the role of spoiler as they escaped with a 3-1 win, snapping the Flames two-game win streak.
Mikael Backlund scored the lone Flames marker while Jacob Markstrom made his seventh straight start, stopping 15 shots.
"It does feel pretty repetitive," MacKenzie Weegar said after the game. "We gotta find ways to win. It was another night of outshooting our opponent but coming up short. I thought first period was kinda sloppy, second period as the game went on things opened up a bit but we didn't meet the challenge and lost that period. In the third, it's the same old push, we have the puck the whole time but we don't seem to score.
"It is a bit frustrating for sure."
And now, a new opponent awaits with the Senators coming to town as the clubs met for the final time this season.
The Flames will not only look to get back in the win column, but also exact revenge from the last outing against the Sens when they dropped a 4-3 overtime decision in Ottawa on Feb. 13.
Both teams are also in similar situations, trying to push for a playoff spot making these points that much more important.
"Today is a new day," Milan Lucic said Saturday. "You've got to come to work and try to get better, build on the positives and fix the negatives.
"Big game, especially with both teams are in the same position, both teams need the two points, so it's going to make for a really good, competitive, hard game."
It's been said before but these games are proving to be more and more crucial as the season winds down.
"We've just got to have better starts and put teams away early," Blake Coleman said. "We're all frustrated. We all expect to win these games and want to win these games, but at the end of the day, we've just got to focus on our own game and make sure we're doing what we can for the team and let the rest fall."
Ottawa suffered just their third loss in their last nine games Saturday night in Vancouver, dropping a 5-2 decision to the Canucks.
After falling behind 4-0, the Sens made things interesting in the third with goals from Claude Giroux and Nick Holden to cut the deficit in half but that was as close as they would get with the Canucks sealing the win with an empty-net goal.
Mads Sogaard got the start stopping 25 shots in what was his 11th career game.
The Senators have made a late push for a playoff spot and made a big splash at the NHL Trade Deadline last week to help that run, acquiring Jakob Chychrun from the Arizona Coyotes.
Chychrun has appeared in five games with his new club, picking up four points in the span.
With 70 points thus far, the Sens sit six points back of the New York Islanders for the final wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference with three games in hand.
BLOCK PARTY:
Chris Tanev blocked a pair of shots on Friday night against Anaheim, giving him 111 on the season, the most on the Flames. Rasmus Andersson is second on the team with 109 and had a team-high three blocks on Friday. As a group the Flames have blocked the sixth-most shots in the league since the start of March with 115.
OTTAWA AND CALGARY TIES:
Senators defenceman Travis Hamonic and goaltender Cam Talbot were teammates on the Flames during the 2019-20 season. Hamonic played an additional two seasons in a Flames uniform in 2017-18 and 2018-19. Sens forward Mark Kastelic was a Calgary Hitmen for five seasons from 2015-16 to 2019-20, captaining the club from 2018-19 to 2019-20. Flames defenceman MacKenzie Weegar was born in Ottawa, ON and is set to skate in his 13th contest against his hometown club, with four assists in his previous 12 games against the Sens. Winger Tyler Toffoli played junior in Ottawa as a member of the 67's, scoring 333 points (163G, 170A) in his 252 games with the club.
Flames - Mikael Backlund
Backlund opened up the scoring against the Ducks with his 15th goal of the season and with the tally, tied Daymond Langkow for the fifth-most game-opening goals in franchise history with 38.
He also recorded his 500th point in the regular season and playoffs combined, becoming one of just four centres to achieve the feat with the franchise.
Senators - Tim Stützle
The Sens top point producer has continued to shine this season, recording his first 30-goal season of his young career.
The 21-year-old has seven points (3G, 4A) in his last five games and recorded four points, including the overtime winner, the last time the Flames and Senators faced off.
Blake Coleman on generating more offence:
"At the end of the day it's two games where we scored one goal through six periods. Its not good enough. You aren't going to win games if you don't score. We have to find ways to be creative and create offence. It's been a challenge for us. It's been a lot of perimeter shots and not enough grittiness in front of the net things like that. We just gotta find a way, honestly."
