Final
  for this game

Sliding Leafs shoot for rare win in Calgary

Feb 14, 2012 - 4:10 PM (Sports Network) - Given that Toronto hasn't won in Calgary in over nine years, the club didn't pick the best time to go on a three-game losing streak.

The Maple Leafs hope to avoid posting their longest skid of the season this evening and snap a six-game road losing streak to the Flames in the start of their trip through Western Canada.

Toronto has posted losing streaks of three games on five separate occasions this year, but hasn't lost four in a row since Nov. 26-Dec. 2 of last season. Still, the city of Calgary isn't the best of places for it to start a three- game road trip given that the Maple Leafs haven't won there since Dec. 27, 2002.

The Leafs were able to snap a four-game overall slide to the Flames with a 3-2 win at home on Oct. 15, getting a pair of goals and an assist from Phil Kessel.

The Toronto offense went silent on Saturday, when the club was handed a 5-0 loss by visiting Montreal on a night when the Leafs retired the No. 13 of former captain Mats Sundin, who coincidentally is the franchise's all-time leader in goals and points.

James Reimer yielded four goals on 15 shots and Jonas Gustavsson took over at the start of the third period. He faced only three shots, but was touched for an early goal.

Reimer, meanwhile, took the blame despite the offense going 0-for-5 on the power play. Toronto has been outscored 11-4 overall on its three-game slide.

"I didn't play good enough, that's what it comes down to," Reimer said. "In a game like this, you need to look in the mirror and I wasn't good enough."

Toronto's skid has it just one point up on Washington for the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference.

Maple Leafs defenseman Carl Gunnarsson suffered an injury in practice on Monday in a collision with Jay Rosehill and his status for this game is unknown after he had to be helped off the ice.

The Flames welcome the Leafs to town after picking up a big 3-2 shootout win over the visiting Canucks on Saturday. Jarome Iginla netted the winner in the shootout after getting robbed on a breakaway with 2:06 left in the third period.

Miikka Kiprusoff, who made 29 saves, followed Iginla's shootout tally by turning away Mason Raymond's bid to assure the extra point for the Flames, who are 3-0-2 in their last five.

"It certainly wasn't pretty at times, but we battled for everything in that hockey game and deserved the two points," said Flames associate coach Craig Hartsburg.

Calgary sits three points behind the eighth spot in the West and received regulation goals from Mike Cammalleri and Roman Horak.

With the Flames losing Mikael Backlund for 4-for-6 weeks due to an upper-body injury, head coach Brent Sutter has opted to move Cammalleri from the wing to center for this game.

The Flames are already playing without Lee Stempniak, Blair Jones, Curtis Glencross, Derek Smith and David Moss due to injury.