Four of the Sharks’ seven games on their current homestand will come against Pacific Division rivals, starting tonight with the Calgary Flames who are in town following their 4-1 trouncing of the Coyotes on Thursday. With top center Mikael Backlund healthy and back in the lineup, the Flames are slowly rebounding from a stretch that saw them lose eight games in a row beginning with a 3-2 defeat at the hands of the Sharks on home ice in early December.

Tale Of The Tape

	@
23-18-3, 49 points	Record	24-16-5, 53 points
5th in Pacific	Rank	3rd in Pacific
45.2%	Score-Adj. Fenwick	50.5%
101.2	PDO	98.6
17.6	PP%	20.7
76.2	PK%	81.6

7PM PST | SAP Center | San Jose, California
TV: CSNCA-HD, CBC | Radio: SJSharks.com, 98.5 KFOX
Know Your Enemy: Matchsticks & Gasoline, Flames Nation

Projected Sharks Lineup

Patrick Marleau – Joe Thornton – Matt Nieto
Logan Couture – Joe Pavelski – Melker Karlsson
Tye McGinn – Tomas Hertl – Tyler Kennedy
Barclay Goodrow – James Sheppard – Tommy Wingels

Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon – Justin Braun
Matt Irwin – Matt Tennyson

Antti Niemi
Alex Stalock

Projected Flames Lineup

Johnny Gaudreau – Mikael Backlund – David Jones
Curtis Glencross – Sean Monahan – Jiri Hudler
Lance Bouma – Joe Colborne – Drew Shore
Brandon Bollig – Matt Stajan – Paul Byron

Mark Giordano – T.J. Brodie
Kris Russell – Dennis Wideman
Raphael Diaz – Deryk Engelland

Joni Ortio
Jonas Hiller

Last Meeting

Patrick Marleau’s last goal, prior to his tally against the Maple Leafs on Thursday, gave the Sharks a 3-2 third period lead at the Saddledome that they wouldn’t relinquish in their second of five games against Calgary this season on December 6th.

Storylines

• 23-year-old Finn Joni Ortio, who has allowed just one goal against in two starts this season, will get a third consecutive go of it in net for Calgary. He’ll face countryman Antti Niemi.
• Calgary recently acquired forward Drew Shore from the Florida Panthers. He’ll play his second game with the Flames tonight./