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Flames and Avs meet again in Calgary

Dec 8, 2011 - 4:11 PM (Sports Network) - The Calgary Flames look to put another beating on the Colorado Avalanche when the two bottom feeders in the Northwest Division get together tonight at the Saddledome.

Calgary has won the first three meetings with Colorado this season, eight straight overall and 10 of the past 11. Calgary has outscored Colorado 33-14 during its eight-game winning streak. The last two matchups took place in the Rocky Mountains and Calgary won the first encounter at home by a 4-2 score on Oct. 26.

Colorado is winless in three straight games at the Saddledome, last winning there Oct. 28, 2010.

The Flames are last in the Northwest Division -- one point behind Colorado -- and will continue a three-game homestand Thursday. They defeated Carolina by a 7-6 score in the opener of the residency on Tuesday, as Jarome Iginla scored twice and Brendan Morrison added two goals with two assists. Lee Stempniak, Rene Bourque and Mikael Backlund also scored for Calgary, which has won four of six games (4-1-1) and improved to 6-5-2 as the host.

"I thought in the game we did a lot of good things," said Calgary assistant coach Craig Hartsburg. "We let down at the end and it cost us some goals. We're at a point now that we need to look at the positives."

The seven goals were a season high. Flames goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff allowed six goals on 34 shots. The Flames will close out the homestand versus rival Edmonton on Saturday. Forward Curtis Glencross is questionable for Thursday's game with flu-like symptoms.

Colorado is mired in a six-game road losing streak and will continue a three- game trek tonight in Calgary. It opened the swing with Tuesday's embarrassing 6-0 loss to Vancouver, as goaltender Semyon Varlamov allowed six goals on just 21 shots before Jean-Sebastien Giguere took over, stopping the two shots he faced.

"We weren't able to capitalize on our chances early in the game," Avalanche head coach Joe Sacco said. "We let them hang around and we didn't capitalize on a 5-on-3 and when you let good teams like this hang around like that, they'll make some plays."

The Avs, who had won three straight and four of five games, will wrap up the road trip against the Oilers on Friday and are 6-5-1 away from the Pepsi Center this season. Giguere is expected to play tonight against Calgary, while center Ryan O'Reilly has four goals and seven points in his last four games.

In injury news for the Avs, center Paul Stastny (upper body) and defenseman Ryan Wilson (head) are both doubtful for Thursday.