Pittsburgh looks to win its third straight game for the first time this season
After a loss in Calgary the first time around, the Pittsburgh Penguins look to exact revenge on home ice.
The Penguins take on the Flames Saturday in search of their third straight win, which is something that has not yet happened this season for them. They also look to beat Calgary on home ice, as the Flames got the best of the Penguins in a shootout in Calgary on Oct. 22.
Pittsburgh surrendered two different leads in that game. In their past two wins against Vancouver and Boston, they have been playing better - and, namely, better defensive hockey. And some of that is due to goaltending, which has been better as of late.
Alex Nedeljkovic will get the start in the second leg of the Penguins' back-to-back.
"Ned is a battler," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "He competes hard in there every night. Some nights are better than others, but you know what you're going to get from him most nights. He's a consistent guy, plays the puck really well, but he competes extremely hard."
In addition, defenseman Owen Pickering will make his way back into the lineup on Saturday after missing two games with an illness. To make room for his return, Jack St. Ivany is a healthy scratch.
Here is how the rest of the lineup will stack up:
This will mark the third straight game in which Jesse Puljujarvi is a healthy scratch. As a more offensive-minded forward, there isn't much room for him to be deployed in offensive situations right now.
Sullivan stressed the importance of deploying the Penguins' bottom-six in a way that takes some of the "tough minutes" away from their top players.
"We're moving guys around in that bottom-six to try to find guys that can fill that role for us," Sullivan said. "It's a vitally important role to help us have success. To have the ability to take players like Sid out of tough minutes with a d-zone start against other teams' top players is beneficial for our team."
He continued: "We still use a lot of the same guys. Cookie's a guy that we have a lot of trust in. Niets is a guy that can play in those areas. I think Lizzo's a guy, he hasn't played a lot of hockey for us yet, but he's a guy that appears to be a guy that we can put in those situations. And we'll move guys in and out until we find a combination that we're comfortable with."
Calgary currently sits third in the Pacific Division at 12-8-4. They lost their last tilt against Columbus, which marked the first time the two teams squared off since the tragic passing of former Flame and Blue Jacket Johnny Gaudreau.