Flames at Coyotes preview

FLAMES (41-19-7) at COYOTES (32-29-5)
9 p.m. ET; FS-A, SNF, NHL.TV

The Flames are 3-0-0 against the Coyotes, outscoring them 18-4, and can sweep the season series with a win. Calgary, which is coming off a 2-1 loss at the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday, leads the San Jose Sharks by three points in the division and conference.
The Coyotes are three points behind the Minnesota Wild for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the West. Arizona lost 3-1 to the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday but is 6-1-0 in its past seven games. The Coyotes should get a boost from the return of forward Michael Grabner, who's been out since Dec. 1 with an eye injury.

Players to watch

Flames defenseman Mark Giordano has four points (one goal, three assists) in his past five games and seven points (three goals, four assists) in three games against the Coyotes this season.
Coyotes forward Vinnie Hinostroza has eight points (two goals, six assists) in his past seven games.

They said it

"That's what happens this time of the year; it tightens up. There's not much room out there every game, no matter who you're playing against. It's tougher in front of the net, it's tougher in the corners, it's tougher through the neutral zone. You have to fight through it." -- Flames defenseman Travis Hamonic
"We've been good at flushing some (bad) games down and coming back and doing the energy thing, but some guys' games have been trending down. They've got to come up for us to be competitive every night." -- Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet

Flames projected lines

Johnny Gaudreau -- Sean Monahan -- Matthew Tkachuk
Michael Frolik -- Mikael Backlund -- Elias Lindholm
Sam Bennett -- Mark Jankowski -- Austin Czarnik
Andrew Mangiapane -- Derek Ryan -- Garnet Hathaway
TJ Brodie -- Mark Giordano
Noah Hanifin -- Travis Hamonic
Oscar Fantenberg -- Rasmus Andersson
Mike Smith
David Rittich
Scratched:Curtis Lazar, Oliver Kylington, Dalton Prout
Injured:James Neal (upper body), Michael Stone (blood clot)

Coyotes projected lines

Lawson Crouse -- Alex Galchenyuk - Josh Archibald
Michael Grabner -- Christian Dvorak -- Clayton Keller
Richard Panik -- Brad Richardson -- Vinnie Hinostroza
Conor Garland -- Mario Kempe -- Nick Cousins
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Niklas Hjalmarsson
Jakob Chychrun -- Alex Goligoski
Kevin Connauton -- Jason Demers
Darcy Kuemper
Calvin Pickard
Scratched:Hudson Fasching, Ilya Lyubushkin, Christian Fischer
Injured:Derek Stepan (lower body), Antti Raanta (lower body), Nick Schmaltz (lower body), Kyle Capobianco (lower body), Jordan Oesterle (upper body)

Status report

Stepan is expected to be out for another month. … Oesterle is practicing.

Stat pack

Smith, who played for the Coyotes from 2011-17, is 7-3-0 with a 1.98 goals-against average in 11 starts against his former team. … Calgary leads the NHL with 16 shorthanded goals; Arizona is second with 13. … Kuemper is 7-1-0 with a 1.72 GAA in his past eight starts. He hasn't played against Calgary this season.