Flames at Canucks preview

FLAMES (34-15-5) at CANUCKS (24-24-7)
10 p.m. ET; CBC, SN, SN360, SN1, CITY, NHL.TV

The Flames, 9-2-1 in their past 12 games, have scored at least four goals in seven of their past 11 and are in first place in the Pacific Division, two points ahead of the San Jose Sharks.
Goalie David Rittich will start for Calgary after he gave up two goals on six shots and was pulled 13:42 into a 5-2 loss against the Sharks on Thursday, his first regulation defeat in his past 10 starts.
Goalie Jacob Markstom will make his seventh straight start for the Canucks, who have lost three straight games (0-2-1) and are 1-3-1 in their past five after going 3-0-2 in their previous five. Vancouver is tied in points with the St. Louis Blues for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

Players to watch

Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau has 29 points (14 goals, 15 assists) in his past 19 games.
Canucks center Elias Pettersson has six points (three goals, three assists) in six games since returning from a knee sprain.

They said it

"We want to start the trip off on the right foot and we're coming off a game we didn't get any points in and we don't want to see that happen again, so well be a desperate group and we want to put our best foot forward." -- Flames coach Bill Peters on the first of four straight road games
"[Forward Nikolay Goldobin] has got tremendous skill and sees the ice really well and [forward Antoine Roussel] has great work ethic and can make plays out there too, and he's good at both ends of the rink so I think it's a great combo to have on my wings." -- Canucks center Bo Horvat on his new linemates

Flames projected lineup

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

Canucks projected lineup

Josh Leivo -- Elias Pettersson -- Brock Boeser
Antoine Roussel -- Bo Horvat -- Nikolay Goldobin
Markus Granlund -- Brandon Sutter -- Jake Virtanen
Loui Eriksson -- Jay Beagle -- Tyler Motte
Ben Hutton -- Troy Stecher
Chris Tanev -- Erik Gudbranson
Derrick Pouliot -- Alex Biega
Jacob Markstrom
Michael DiPietro
Scratched: Guillaume Brisebois , Tim Schaller
Injured: Alexander Edler (face), Sven Baertschi (concussion), Thatcher Demko (knee sprain)

Status report

Baertschi, who has missed the past three games, was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome, Canucks coach Travis Green said. ... Demko is expected to miss 7-10 days. … DiPietro was recalled from Ottawa of the Ontario Hockey League on an emergency basis.

Stat pack

Monahan and Lindholm each has 19 points (six goals, 13 assists) in his past 15 games. … Boeser has eight points (three goals, five assists) in his past seven games.