Flames at Jets preview

FLAMES (44-20-7) at JETS (41-25-4)
7 p.m. ET; SNW, SNP, NHL.TV

The Flames will clinch a playoff berth if they get at least one point against the Jets or the Minnesota Wild lose to the New York Rangers on Saturday.
Monahan has an illness and did not travel with the team. The Flames can maintain their lead in the Pacific Division with a win in the second half of a back to back. They won 5-1 against the New York Rangers on Friday and are one point ahead of the second-place San Jose Sharks.
Connor Hellebuyck will start for Winnipeg, which can maintain its lead atop the Central Division with a win. They lead the Nashville Predators by one point and are 4-3-0 in their past seven games after going 1-4-1 in their previous six.

Players to watch

Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk has 10 points (six goals, four assists) in a three-game point streak.
Jets forward Patrik Laine has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in his past 11 games.

They said it

"We know tonight is kind of a different beast, coming into Winnipeg on a back to back. Tonight is going to be a really, really tough game. It's going to be a really tough test. But I know we're up for it. We've had success against them earlier this year and one earlier here in this building. We're confident." -- Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk
"They have a lot of offense, but it comes from a lot of different areas. They get some great contributions from their back end and on any given night it can be any one of their forward lines going. Johnny [Gaudreau]'s been pretty hot lately, but you look at Tkachuk last night with five points and kind of what their line is able to do, they have a lot of depth scoring as well."-- Jets forward Adam Lowry

Flames projected lineup

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

Jets projected lineup

Patrik Laine -- Mark Scheifele -- Blake Wheeler
Kyle Connor -- Kevin Hayes -- Nikolaj Ehlers
Brandon Tanev -- Adam Lowry -- Bryan Little
Mathieu Perreault -- Andrew Copp -- Jack Roslovic
Nathan Beaulieu -- Jacob Trouba
Ben Chiarot -- Sami Niku
Dmitry Kulikov -- Tyler Myers
Connor Hellebuyck
Laurent Brossoit
Scratched: Matt Hendricks, Par Lindholm, Bogdan Kiselevich
Injured: Joe Morrow (lower body), Dustin Byfuglien (lower body), Josh Morrissey (upper body)

Status report

Stone, who has missed 53 games because of a blood clot, will make his return to the lineup. The Flames are going with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. ... The Flames did not hold a morning skate. … Morrow is practicing with the team and took the morning skate on Saturday but will not play Saturday.

Stat pack

Gaudreau has seven points (four goals, three assists) in his past two games. … Lindholm has four points (one goal, three assists) in his past two games. … Wheeler has 18 points (eight goals, 10 assists) in his past 11 games.