In a tale of two franchises, the Calgary Flames defeated the Pacific Division’s bottom team, the San Jose Sharks, on Saturday evening and will face the division’s top team, the Vegas Golden Knights, within 24 hours of each other on Sunday.
One of the most important things to watch for today’s contest is whether Jonathan Huberdeau can keep the ball moving and score in his fourth straight contest.
On Saturday, he scored the Flames’ first goal and capped the night with an empty-net goal. He led the Calgary offense with seven goals and 13 points in December.
Related: Flames Huberdeau shatters personal total goal in December
Meanwhile, Nazem Kadri received an assist on all three of the Flames’ goals against San Jose and has scored points in 14 of the last 18 games, with the team going 9-5-4 in those games.
After picking up a “hometown” win, Dustin Wolf trades in favor of Dan Vladar tonight, making his first start since December 19th, an overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators.
In his career, Vladar is 1-1-1 against the Golden Knights with a 3.35 GAA and a .883 SV%. He has a 6-6-5 record with a 3.07 GAA and a .886 SV% in the 2024-25 season.
His counterpart at the other end of the ice will be Ilya Samsonov, who is playing his first season with Vegas. He posted an 8-3-1 record with a 2.97 GAA and a .898 SV%.
Surprisingly, Samsonov has only played against the Flames twice in his career. He has a 1-0-1 record, a sparkling GAA of 1.76 and a SV% of .927.
Heading into Sunday night’s game, Vegas has 51 points, the second-best point total in the NHL behind the Winnipeg Jets (53 points). They have a goal difference of plus-27 and a record of 10-5-3 on home ice.
Finally, the Flames picked up their fifth road win on Saturday in San Jose and improved to 5-7-4 as visitors. They continue to post a negative goal difference of minus-9, the fifth-worst statistic in the Pacific Division.
One reason for this lopsided result is the Golden Knights, who eliminated Calgary 5-0 in their first meeting on October 28 at T-Mobile Arena.
Leader of the Flames and Golden Knights
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Goals: Jonathan Huberdeau (15) / Ivan Barbashev (15)
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Supports: MacKenzie Weegar (15) / Jack Eichel (37)
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Points: Jonathan Huberdeau (27) / Jack Eichel (47)
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PIM: Martin Pospisil (51) / Nicolas Roy (31)
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PPG: Jonathan Huberdeau & Yegor Sharangovich (3) / Tomas Hertl (7)
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LIKE G: Nazem Kadri (117) / Pavel Dorofeyev (102)
Here’s a breakdown of today’s lineup, according to the Flames staff at NHL.com. (subject to change)
FORWARD
Jonathan Huberdeau – Nazem Kadri – Martin Pospisil
Blake Coleman – Mikael Backlund – Matt Coronato
Yegor Sharangovich – Connor Zary – Jakob Pelletier
Ryan Lomberg – Kevin Rooney – Walker Duehr
DEFENSE
Kevin Bahl – Rasmus Andersson
Joel Hanley – Mackenzie Weegar
Jake Bean – Brayden Pachal
GOALKEEPER
Dan Vladar
Dustin Wolf
SCRATCH
Daniil Miromanov, Tyson Barrie, Andrei Kuzmenko
Tonight is the second of four Flames-Golden Knights meetings in 2024-25. These two clubs will meet again at the Saddledome in early April for two competitions ten days apart.
The game is available on SCRIPPS, TVAS, Sportsnet and Sportsnet+. The puck drops at 6 p.m. MT.
