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Must-Win Matinee: Flames-Islanders Game Day |
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Let’s pose a question heading into today’s matinee game between the Calgary Flames and the New York Islanders at the UBS Arena.
What do the Hockey Gods do with two teams that perpetually string along their fanbase’s playoff hopes?
My best guess is a good old fashioned three-point game, but we’ll see. Let’s take a look at what’s in store this afternoon.
At a Glance
Calgary Flames (32-25-11, 75 pts) vs. New York Islanders (32-28-8, 72 pts)
Last Ten: Calgary (4-3-3) New York (6-3-1)
Time: 2:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.
TV: MSGSN, SN
Hot Tamale
Today will be a battle of spoilers. Both the Flames and Islanders sit squarely out of a playoff spot by exactly two points.
Calgary is coming off a two-goal comeback over New Jersey where they scored four unanswered goals on their former starter, Jacob Markstrom. New York is on a three-game winning streak themselves as they continue to see how far goaltender Ilya Sorokin can take them. The 29 year old from Mezhdurechensk, Russia has started 20 of 22 possible games going back to Jan. 20 and has a league-leading 14 wins over that span.
Luckily for the Flames, Sorokin is expected to be getting a rare game off. Marcus Hogberg, 30, has impressive stats through eight games this season and is pegged to start in net.
Despite only winning two of his eight starts, the six-foot-five netminder has a .938 save percentage and 1.70 goals against average on the season.
Calgary Flames Projected Lineup
No morning skate. Expect these lines to be adjusted at warmup.
Zary-Kadri-Pospisil
Huberdeau-Frost-Coronato
Farabee-Sharangovich-Coleman
Lomberg-Rooney-Klapka
Hanley-Weegar
Bahl-Andersson
Bean-Miromanov
Wolf (Starter)
Vladar
New York Islanders Projected Lineup
Courtesy of nhl.com writing staff.
Simon Holmstrom -- Bo Horvat -- Kyle Palmieri
Anders Lee -- Jean-Gabriel Pageau -- Anthony Duclair
Pierre Engvall -- Casey Cizikas -- Hudson Fasching
Maxim Tsyplakov -- Kyle MacLean -- Marc Gatcomb
Alexander Romanov -- Tony DeAngelo
Adam Pelech -- Noah Dobson
Mike Reilly -- Ryan Pulock
Marcus Hogberg
Ilya Sorokin
Ringer
It’s not often you see a North American defenceman start the season in the KHL due to lack of interest, have his contract terminated by his KHL team, and then come back to play first pairing minutes in the NHL.
Seriously, if you can name anyone other than Tony DeAngelo, I would be interested in hearing about it in the comments.
Under the weather today, so we’re keeping it short. Puck drop is at 2:10 p.m. MST.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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