Time: 08:30 P.M. EST Venue: American Airlines Center
The Calgary Flames are entering the final two weeks of the regular season with the slimmest of leads over the defending Stanley Cup champions for what could be the Pacific Division's last playoff spot, but their immediate concern is with an even more desperate club. A chance to pad that advantage comes Monday night in Dallas against a Stars team that might not be able afford any kind of slip-up during a daunting stretch to conclude the season. Calgary (41-28-7) won 5-2 in Nashville on Sunday to move a point ahead of Los Angeles, but the Kings have a game in hand. The Flames are making a third stop on a five-game road trip and are now in position to win consecutive games for the first time since March 11-13, going 3-3-2 since. Lance Bouma scored twice against the Predators, and Jiri Hudler's goal and assist gives the forward nine points in six games." Tonight, I really believed that we played what I would say is our most complete game in a long time," coach Bob Hartley said. "Not that the others were not good, but tonight I am so proud of our four lines, our six Ds, and Jonas Hiller came up with some big saves at the right times. It's a big team win. It feels great." The Flames have had no such success against Dallas (37-29-10). The Stars are enjoying a 5-0-1 run in the series, including a pair of wins this season. The most recent was a 4-3 shootout victory in Calgary on Wednesday behind Ales Hemsky's two goals. Tyler Seguin added two assists and has nine points on a four-game point streak against the Flames. The Stars are 10-3-0 since a six-game skid threw a major kink into their postseason aspirations, and with 84 points they're chasing Winnipeg's 90 for the final Western Conference wild-card spot." (The hope) is still there," captain Jamie Benn told the team's official website. "A lot of people are saying this, but you just take it a game at a time. We are going to need some help, and we just need to keep winning these games and we'll see what happens." If the Stars are going to make an improbable playoff push, they're really going to have to earn it. Saturday's 4-3 overtime win in Vancouver started a season-closing stretch of seven games with six likely playoff teams on the list. It followed a potentially haunting 4-0 loss in Edmonton on Friday." Yesterday, we were pretty good offensively but we did some big mistakes with the puck," John Klingberg said after scoring the winner. "We had a pretty good run before that. It's good we got the win here today. We need every win. It's good for us." In goal, Kari Lehtonen figures to go for a career-best 35th win. The Dallas starter is 9-2-0 with a 2.30 goals-against average in 12 games this month. With the Stars, he's 4-0-2 with a 1.94 GAA in home games against Calgary. If the Flames stick with Hiller, he brings a 3-1-1 record and 2.13 GAA in his last six games. Against Dallas, he's just 1-10-0 with a 3.01 GAA in his last 12. Karri Ramo suffered the shootout loss to the Stars last week and is 0-1-1 with a 4.25 GAA in three career games in the series. Calgary is uncertain of whether it'll have Paul Byron back after he sat against the Predators because of a lower-body injury. Byron played in Friday's 4-2 loss in Minnesota but missed the previous 17 games with an undisclosed ailment.
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