Coyotes at Flames preview

COYOTES (33-27-8) at FLAMES (35-26-7)
9 p.m. ET; SNW, FS-A PLUS, NHL.TV

The Coyotes are tied with the Vancouver Canucks, Nashville Predators and Winnipeg Jets for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the West and are three points behind the Flames for third place in the Pacific Division.
Arizona has won two straight and is 5-3-0 in its past eight games after having two wins in its previous 11 games (2-6-3).
Calgary, which trails the Edmonton Oilers by three points for second in the Pacific, has won two in a row and is 4-1-1 in its past six games.

Players to watch

Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson has four points (two goals, two assists) in his past two games.
Flames defenseman Mark Giordano has four assists in his past two games.

They said it

"I think everybody's looking around, but at the same time it comes down to taking care of your own business. That's all you can focus on and do something about. It's going to be a big game for us here tonight." -- Coyotes defenseman Oliver-Ekman Larsson
"It's a team who you want to keep behind you. You look every morning and you see (the standings). You can't miss it. You take a look at the scores and the standings every day. That should be motivating to our guys. We need to pile up points here to create some gap if we can for that playoff spot."-- Flames defenseman Mark Giordano

Coyotes projected lineup

Taylor Hall -- Christian Dvorak -- Clayton Keller
Lawson Crouse -- Derek Stepan -- Nick Schmaltz
Conor Garland --
Barrett Hayton
-- Phil Kessel
Carl Soderberg -- Brad Richardson -- Vinnie Hinostroza
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Ilya Lyubushkin
Jordan Oesterle -- Niklas Hjalmarsson
Alex Goligoski -- Jason Demers
Darcy Kuemper
Antti Raanta
Scratched:Christian Fischer, Michael Grabner, Aaron Ness
Injured:Jakob Chychrun (lower body)

Flames projected lineup

Johnny Gaudreau -- Sean Monahan -- Elias Lindholm
Andrew Mangiapane -- Mikael Backlund -- Matthew Tkachuk
Milan Lucic -- Derek Ryan -- Dillon Dube
Sam Bennett -- Mark Jankowski -- Tobias Rieder
Mark Giordano -- TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin -- Rasmus Andersson
Derek Forbort -- Erik Gustafsson
Cam Talbot
David Rittich
Scratched:Zac Rinaldo, Oliver Kylington, Michael Stone
Injured: Travis Hamonic (upper body)

Status report

Arizona held an optional morning skate. …Talbot will make his third consecutive start for Calgary.

Stat pack

Hall has 29 points (10 goals, 19 assists) in 30 games against the Flames. … Kuemper is 10-2-1 with a 1.95 goals-against average and .934 save percentage in 13 road games this season. … Lindholm has four points (two goals, two assists) in a three-game point streak. … Gaudreau has four points (one goal, three assists) in a three-game point streak. ...Talbot will make his 300th NHL start.