Hurricanes at Flames preview
Carolina 3-0-1 in past four games; Calgary looks to extend season-high win streak to eight
by Aaron Vickers / NHL.com Independent Correspondent
HURRICANES (19-11-2) at FLAMES (18-12-4)
4 p.m. ET; SNW, FS-CR, NHL.TV
The Game
The Calgary Flames will try to extend their season-long winning streak to eight games when they host the Carolina Hurricanes at Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday.
Calgary is 7-0-0 and has outscored opponents 28-17 during their longest winning streak since a seven-game stretch from Feb. 16-27, 2019, and is 8-0-1 in its past nine games after a six-game winless streak (0-5-1).
Carolina is 3-0-1 in the past four games, including a 1-0 overtime loss at the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday, and 10-4-1 in the past 15 games.
Players to watch
Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho has seven points (five goals, two assists) in his past three games, and 15 goals in his past 20.
Flames forward Sean Monahan has 10 points (five goals, five assists) in an eight-game point streak.
They said it
"At the end of the day it's a process. I think over the 82 games, if you're doing it right, it'll pay off in the end. Right now we're kind of taking a couple steps forward and one back, it kind of feels like. We have a hard-working group. I think in general that's going to pay off for us in the end." -- Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour
"I think, obviously, it was a coaching change, but I think it was just the time of the year. We weren't playing good hockey. Over time that gets frustrating. I think you want to pick your game up. Right now our team has confidence. When you're playing with confidence and getting results it's a fun place to be." -- Calgary forward Sean Monahan
Hurricanes projected lineup
Nino Niederreiter -- Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen
Andrei Svechnikov -- Jordan Staal -- Warren Foegele
Ryan Dzingel -- Lucas Wallmark -- Martin Necas
Brock McGinn -- Jordan Martinook -- Julien Gauthier
Jaccob Slavin -- Dougie Hamilton
Joel Edmundson -- Brett Pesce
Jake Gardiner -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Petr Mrazek
James Reimer
Scratched: Haydn Fleury
Injured: Erik Haula (knee)
Flames projected lineup
Matthew Tkachuk -- Elias Lindholm -- Andrew Mangiapane
Mikael Backlund -- Sean Monahan -- Dillon Dube
Milan Lucic -- Derek Ryan -- Johnny Gaudreau
Tobias Rieder -- Mark Jankowski -- Michael Frolik
Mark Giordano -- Rasmus Andersson
Noah Hanifin -- Travis Hamonic
TJ Brodie -- Michael Stone
David Rittich
Cam Talbot
Scratched: Zac Rinaldo, Oliver Kylington
Injured: Sam Bennett (upper body), Austin Czarnik (lower body)
Status report
Haula, who has missed 16 of the past 18 games, is not on this road trip. ... Calgary assigned forward Matthew Phillips to Stockton of the American Hockey League on Friday.
Stat pack
Svechnikov has five points (two goals, three assists) in the past four games. … Hamilton is four assists from 200 in the NHL. … Gaudreau has four goals in the past five games after going 10 straight without a goal. … Brodie is expected to play in his 600th NHL game.