Turn Up the Heat, Gm 42: Islanders vs. Flames, Game Notes & More

After falling to the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 on Friday night, the New York Islanders (17-18-6) are in Calgary to face the Flames (25-13-6) on Saturday. Puck drop is slated for 10 PM ET.

The New York Islanders put together a strong performance against the Oilers, but could not find a way to beat the 39-year old Mike Smith on countless grade-A scoring chances.

“I mean, you can say played a really good game but we also got to find a way score.” Scott Mayfield said.

The New York Islanders task does not get any easier as the Calgary Flames have won five straight and seven of their last eight games.

The Flames also have five players with points streaks of at least four games and a penalty kill of 92.68% on home ice (38/41).

“They’ve got really good structure, they defend really hard,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said. “They’ve got a lot of, I’ll say a lot of things going the right way, they’re playing the right way. And now they’ve just got a really good, really good mix.”

As for the lineup, Trotz had this to say when asked if Kyle Palmieri would get back in the lineup:

“We haven’t done a lot of scoring. Kyle has one goal as well. So you know, that change could happen tonight,” Trotz said.  “There’s very few people that were passengers last night. So right now I’m probably going to stay with the same lineup.”

Semyon Varlamov is projected to start for the Islanders, with Jacob Markstrom projected for the Flames.

NEW YORK ISLANDERS LINES (PROJECTED)

Anders Lee—Mathew Barzal—Cal Clutterbuck

Ross Johnston—Brock Nelson—Josh Bailey

Zach Parise—Jean-Gabriel Pageau—Oliver Wahlstrom

Matt Martin—Casey Cizikas–Anthony Beauvillier

Adam Pelech—Scott Mayfield

Zdeno Chara—Noah Dobson

Andy Greene—Ryan Pulock

Semyon Varlamov

Ilya Sorokin

CALGARY FLAMES LINES (PROJECTED)

Johnny Gaudreau—Elias Lindholm–Mathew Tkachuk

Andrew Mangiapane—Mikael Backlund—Blake Coleman

Dillon Dube—Sean Monahan—Brett Ritchie

Milan Lucic—Adam Ruzicka—Trevor Lewis

Noah Hanifin—Rasmus Andersson

Oliver Kylington—Chris Tanev

Nikita Zadorov—Erik Gudbranson

Jacob Markstrom

Daniel Vladar

GAME NOTES:

Tonight, the New York Islanders visit the Calgary Flames in the final game of their Western Canada road trip. It is the second of two meetings between the clubs this season.

The last time these teams met was on November 20, 2021, the first-ever game at UBS Arena.

Tonight is the second game of a back-to-back series for the Islanders, who fell, 3-1, in Edmonton last night. It was their 41st game of the season, as the Islanders became the final team in the NHL to reach the halfway mark of their regular season schedule.

BETTING CORNER:

The New York Islanders are the road underdogs at +175 and are -160 on the reverse puck line. The Calgary Flames are the home favorite at -210 and are +140 on the puck line. The over is set at 5.5 at +105 with the under 5.5 at -124.

HOW TO WATCH:

Saturday night’s contest will be available on MSG+ for the local viewers. On the radio dial, the game can be heard on 1050 AM ESPN, 88.7 FM WRHU and 103.9 FM LI News Radio.