Game Preview: Islanders at Flames

NEW YORK ISLANDERS (5-6-5) AT CALGARY FLAMES (6-8-2)

7 PM ET | SCOTIABANK SADDLEDOME

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The New York Islanders are looking to snap a seven-game winless skid (0-4-3) when they take on the Calgary Flames on Saturday in their fourth and final game of their Western road trip.

The Islanders are coming off a 4-3 shootout loss to the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night at Climate Pledge Arena. Anders Lee (PPG), Casey Cizikas and Noah Dobson (PPG) buried goals for the Islanders, but surrendered power-play goals to Alex Wennberg, Matty Beniers and Kailer Yamamoto through 60 minutes. After a scoreless overtime, Yamamoto scored the game-deciding goal in the eighth round of the shootout.

Semyon Varlamov made four saves in the shootout after stopping 29 shots in regulation and overtime. Philipp Grubauer also made four saves in the shootout along with 20 saves in regulation and overtime action for the win that snapped a three-game winless skid for Seattle.

With the earned point in the shootout on Thursday after falling to the Canucks in OT on Wednesday, the Islanders are on a two-game point streak.

“We did a lot of good things, but it came down to a shootout and we ended up on the wrong side of it,” Head Coach Lane Lambert said on Thursday night. “We just have to keep building.”

The Flames had a dominant performance on Thursday against their division rivals with a 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks. Elias Lindholm (1G, 2A), Jonathan Huberdeau (1G, 1A), MacKenzie Weegar, Dillon Dube and Noah Hanifin led the way offensively for the Flames. Jacob Markstrom turned aside 20 of 22 in his third consecutive start.

Through two meetings of the season series last year, the Islanders won a 4-3 OT contest on Nov. 7th at UBS Arena and fell 4-1 on the road on Jan. 6. The Islanders are 1-5-0 in their last six games against the Flames.

LINEUP UPDATES:

- Matt Martin (upper body) and Julien Gauthier (sick) will both miss their second straight games.

ISLANDERS NOTES

- Matt Martin (upper body) and Julien Gauthier (illness) missed Thursday's contest against the Kraken.

- Casey Cizikas buried his 100th career goal on Thursday and snapped a seven-game goal drought in the process.

- Anders Lee also snapped a lengthy goal drought, scoring for the first time in 11 games in Thursday’s 4-3 SO loss.

- Bo Horvat kept his point streak alive with an assist on Thursday, hitting the scoresheet in his last four games (1G, 3A). Horvat has 13 points (5G, 8A) in 15 games this season.

- Mathew Barzal had a multi-point performance (2A) on Thursday in his second consecutive game to tie Noah Dobson for the team lead in points (14). Dobson found the back of the net on Thursday for his 35th career goal, tying Johnny Boychuk for 10th place among defensemen on the all-time franchise list.

- The Islanders’ power play percentage is higher than the penalty kill percentage over their last five games. The penalty kill went 7-for-17 (41.2%), while their power play went 5-for-12 (41.7%).

- Per team statistician Eric Hornick, the Islanders have been outscored 16-4 in the third period over the last eight games and 11-2 over the last seven games.

- The Islanders created a lead in 13 of their first 16 games of the season, but picked up the two points in five of those games.

- The Islanders have a road record of 2-3-2 through seven away games this season.

FLAMES NOTES

- The Flames sit in sixth place in the Pacific Division with 14 points, but they’ve had a solid month so far, sporting a 4-2-1 record in November.

- Jonathan Huberdeau snapped a 11-game goal drought with a goal in Thursday’s 5-2 win over the Canucks. The forward has nine points (3G, 6A) in the first 16 games of his second season in Calgary.

- Elias Lindholm had a three-point outing on Thursday with a goal and two assists. He leads the Flames with 11 points (3G, 8A) in 16 games.

- Rookie forward Martin Pospisil has three points (1G, 2A) in his last four games with a +3 over that span.

- Connor Zary is also making an impression in his first stretch of NHL games. The 22-year-old has six points (3G, 3A) through his first seven games and recorded his first career multi-point night (1G, 1A) on Tuesday against Montreal.

- The Flames have won three straight games against the Islanders on home ice dating back to Feb. 20, 2019, and have not been defeated on home ice since losing to the Islanders 5-2 in Calgary on Mar. 11, 2018.

- The Flames will wear their black alternate jerseys on against the Islanders to wrap their two-game home stand, after debuting the threads for the first time of the season on Thursday.