The San Jose Sharks look to make it four wins in a row as they return to Calgary for the first time since New Year's Eve to take on the division-leading Flames.
Team Teal is riding high after an exciting win over the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night. San Jose was able to hold off Winnipeg's second-period push thanks to a "gutsy" call by the team's video ops guy, before tying the contest up 2-2 in the third frame. Brent Burns set captain Joe Pavelski up for a beautiful goal in overtime to give the Sharks the 3-2 victory.
The Flames are also coming off a win, having defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3, although they haven't played since last Sunday. They are 8-1-1 in their last 10 contests and continue scoring goals at a high rate, making them second in the league in goals scored. Calgary is in first place in the Pacific Division with 73 points, four points ahead of San Jose.
Thursday night's contest could potentially be a contentious one because of the emotional end to the teams' last meeting on December 31. That game ended with multiple fights breaking out, particularly after Calgary forward Sam Bennett hit San Jose defenseman Radim Simek. It remains to be seen if there will be any kind of retaliation on the Sharks' part.
This is the third time the Sharks and Flames have squared off this season. San Jose is 53-55-8-7 lifetime against Calgary.
Sharks projected lines and pairs:
Sports
Timo Meier – Logan Couture – Joe Pavelski
Evander Kane – Tomas Hertl – Joonas Donskoi
Marcus Sorensen – Joe Thornton – Kevin Labanc
Barclay Goodrow – Dylan Gambrell – Melker Karlsson
Radim Simek – Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon – Justin Braun
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Tim Heed
Martin Jones – projected starter
Aaron Dell
Flames projected lines and pairs:
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 – T.J. Brodie
Noah Hanifin – Travis Hamonic
Oliver Kylington – Rasmus Andersson
David Rittich – projected starter
Mike Smith
