Flames at Wild preview

FLAMES (20-10-2) at WILD (17-12-2)
1:30 p.m. ET; FS-N, FS-WI, SNW, NHL.TV

David Rittich, who is 9-3-1 with a 2.31 goals-against average and .921 save percentage in 13 starts this season, will start for the Flames. Mike Smith is day to day with an undisclosed injury.
The Wild have won two straight and have outscored their opponents 12-2 in that span. Devan Dubnyk is expected to make his fourth consecutive start.

Players to watch

Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau has 23 points (seven goals, 16 assists) in his past 13 games.
Wild forward Mikael Granlund has nine points (one goal, eight assists) in his past seven games.

They said it

"Some teams are going to check out, right. The fat guy (Santa) is going to come down the chimney in a few days here, right, so some teams will check out around the League. Don't be one of them. … (We've got) two games coming up, both in the afternoon, let's go to work." -- Flames coach Bill Peters
"The fact is, the League is so tight now that when you lose three or four in a row, or go through any sort of bad stretch, you fall way behind, so you can't. Whether we're home or whether we're on the road, we got to play as well as we can and we need to get points. I know it's only game (32), but at the same time, it goes quickly." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau

Flames projected lineup

Johnny Gaudreau -- Sean Monahan -- Elias Lindholm
Matthew Tkachuk -- Derek Ryan -- Sam Bennett
Andrew Mangiapane -- Mark Jankowski -- James Neal
Austin Czarnik -- Alan Quine -- Garnet Hathaway
Mark Giordano -- TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin -- Travis Hamonic
Oliver Kylington -- Rasmus Andersson
David Rittich
Jon Gillies
Scratched:Dalton Prout
Injured:Juuso Valimaki (lower body), Michael Stone (blood clot), Michael Frolik (lower body), Mikael Backlund (concussion), Mike Smith (undisclosed)

Wild projected lineup

Jason Zucker -- Eric Staal -- Mikael Granlund
Zach Parise -- Charlie Coyle -- Nino Niederreiter
Jordan Greenway -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Luke Kunin
Marcus Foligno -- Matt Hendricks -- Eric Fehr
Ryan Suter -- Mathew Dumba
Jared Spurgeon -- Jonas Brodin
Nick Seeler -- Greg Pateryn
Devan Dubnyk
Alex Stalock
Scratched:JT Brown, Nate Prosser
Injured:Mikko Koivu (lower body)

Status report

Backlund practiced Friday but will not play. … Backlund and Smith each made the trip. … Gillies was recalled from Stockton of the American Hockey League and forward Ryan Lomberg was reassigned Friday. … Koivu practiced Friday and will be a game-time decision.

Stat pack

Monahan has 19 points (11 goals, eight assists) in his past 13 games. …Tkachuk has eight points (one goal, seven assists) in his past five games. … Giordano has eight points (one goal, seven assists) in his past three games. … Parise has six points (two goals, four assists) in a three-game point streak. … Suter has five assists in his past two games.