Photo Credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports
The Battle Of Alberta rages on tonight at the Saddledome.
The Calgary Flames are ahead of the Edmonton Oilers in the standings by only 7 points. The Flames have a record of 14-17-6 and the Oilers are at 12-24-3, which means that tonight’s game will be a battle worth watching.
Roman Horak (who played 13 games for the Abbotsford Heat this season and had 2 goals and 5 assists) could possibly debut for the Oilers tonight. Horak was part of the trade that moved Ladislav Smid to the Flames blue line. Taylor Hall (14 goals and 19 assists so far this season) has been doing well lately, receiving 5 points in his last three games. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (9 goals and 20 assists) has also been on a point-streak lately with 4 points in three games.
Based on the projected lines for tonight, Matt Stajan (16 points this season) will be playing tonight in spite of the knee on knee hit from Backes in the last game against the St. Louis Blues. Reto Berra gets the nod in net, and Sean Monahan has been bumped down to the fourth line, centering Bouma and McGrattan. Kris Russell, Blair Jones, Curtis Glencross, and Dennis Wideman are still out of the line-up tonight with injuries.
Even though the Oilers won the first Battle Of Alberta on November 16 with a final score of 4-2, the Flames answered back with an overtime win (2-1) in their second match-up on December 7. This is the third of five meetings this season.
Puck drops at 7pm, MT.