Flames Gameday: Calgary on a quest for a season-high four-game winning streak

Calgary looks to go a perfect 3-0 against the struggling Philadelphia Flyers during its four-game road trip

Flames (17-16-5, 39 points) at Philadelphia Flyers (19-13-6, 44 points)

The Calgary Flames are gunning for their first four-game winning streak of the season with an afternoon — at least afternoon in the Eastern time zone — clash.

Having won the first two outings of this four-game trip, the Flames have moved above .500 and pulled closer to a wild-card spot in the playoff chase. Yeah, we know the Stanley Cup chase is a long way off and the Flames have a huge amount of potential trades to make with their pending unrestricted free agents, but just enjoy a playoff race for now.

Calgary does boast a 6-2-2 record in the past 10 games.

The Flames won a 4-3 affair with the Flyers at home on New Year’s Eve, and boast a 9-2-1 record against Philadelphia dating back to Feb. 15, 2107.

Calgary has won four of the last five meetings in the City of Brotherly Love, three of them in extra time. Philadelphia’s win in that time also came in overtime.

The Flyers dropped a 3-2 shootout game to the Columbus Blue Jackets last outing, in which they blew a 2-0 third-period lead and our old friend in Calgary Johnny Gaudreau scored the shootout winner.

The Flyers are are winless in their last four games (0-2-2) and have just one victory in seven outings.

With no morning skate, here’s a look at Calgary’s possible lineup:
Forwards:
Jonathan Huberdeau-Elias Lindholm-Yegor Sharangovich
Andrew Mangiapane-Mikael Backlund-Blake Coleman
Connor Zary-Nazem Kadri-Martin Pospisil
A.J. Greer-Adam Ruzicka -Dillon Dube
Extra: Walker Duehr
Defence:
Noah Hanifin-Chris Tanev
Rasmus Andersson-MacKenzie Weegar
Jordan Oesterle-Nick DeSimone
Extra: Yan Kuznetsov
Goal:
Jacob Markstrom
Dan Vladar
Markstrom has a career 6-4-1 career record (one shutout) against Philadelphia with a 1.94 goals-against average and .935 save percentage. Vladar has a 0-0-1 mark with a 2.86 GAA and .906 SvPct.

Here is the potential roster for the Flyers:
Forwards:
Joel Farabee-Sean Couturier-Travis Konecny
Owen Tippett-Morgan Frost-Cam Atkinson
Tyson Foerster-Ryan Poehling-Bobby Brink
Nicolas Deslauriers-Scott Laughton-Garnet Hathaway
Defence:
Cam York-Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler-Sean Walker
Egor Zamula-Rasmus Ristolainen
Goal:
Carter Hart
Samuel Ersson
Hart has a 1-2-2 mark against the Flames, with a 2.37 GAA and .923 SvPct. Ersson has a 1-1-0 record, 3.07 GAA and .910 SvPct.

ICE CHIPS: Flyers RW Travis Konecny is riding a six-game point streak, in which he has collected four goals and five assists. He has scored in two straight games … Flames F Blake Coleman has scored in three consecutive games for the third time in his career, and is gunning for his first four-game goal-scoring streak … The Flames penalty killer has been perfect in its last 21 shorthanded situations … In the battle of special teams, the Flyers boast the No. 2 penalty kill (86%) while Calgary is fifth (84.7%). Calgary has the 30th ranked power play (12.4%) and Philadelphia’s is 32nd (9.8%) … The Flyers, Flames and St. Louis Blues are tied atop the league with nine short-handed goals.