With Devin Cooley out and Dustin Wolf having played on Friday, the Calgary Flames are turning to their third goaltender on Saturday.
Derek Willis confirmed that Arsenii Sergeev will man the crease as the Flames take on the high-octane Colorado Avalanche. Sergeev has one game of NHL experience, which came on Apr. 16 vs. the Los Angeles Kings at the end of the year.
He looked good in that contest, stopping 27 of 28 shots that he faced, good for a .964 save percentage. But the Kings were not what one would call “high octane” last season, given their 29th-place ranking in scoring with 220 goals.
Colorado is fourth in the league with 54 goals scored in 13 games. They also poured an avalanche of goals on the Flames when the two teams met on Oct. 8, winning that game 7-3. Colorado is also at home, so this will be Sergeev’s first career start on the road.
The good news? The Flames have been hot lately, with Matt Coronato putting up a career-best performance on Friday and multiple young scorers finding their respective grooves. If the Flames repeat on Saturday night against a team like Colorado, it will further show their immense growth in one month.
Calgary Flames Projected Lines And Pairings Against Colorado
NHL.com reported that “The Flames did not hold a morning skate following a 6-2 win against the Seattle Kraken on Friday.”
Daily Faceoff also used the previous game’s warm-up lineup combos for its projections via Ryan Pike. Considering how well the Flames played on Friday, there is a good chance they will go with similar lines and pairings.
Joel Farabee, Mikael Backlund, and Matt Coronato should take the first line. Backlund continues to provide the veteran presence while Farabee and Coronato are heating up.
Matvei Gridin, Martin Pospisil, and Ryan Strome project for the second line. Strome scored his third goal of the season in that win over the Kraken.
Aydar Suniev, Morgan Frost, and Yegor Sharangovich would be slated for the third line. Sharangovich has been held without a point in his last five games.
Maxim Tsyplakov, Jonathan Castagna, and Adam Klapka would make up the fourth line. Klapka reached the 50-hit milestone on Friday night.
Kevin Bahl and Simon Nemec project for the first pairing, with Jake Middleton and Zach Whitecloud projected for the second. Whitecloud picked up his first point of the season when he assisted on Coronato’s goal vs. Seattle. That would leave Yan Kuznetsov and Zayne Perekh on the projected third pairing.
Calgary Facing A Moment-Of-Truth Game Against Avalanche
More good news for the Flames? Seattle outscored them 12-2 this season before Friday night’s contest. Despite the 7-3 loss earlier this season to the Avalanche, the Flames already showed they can flip the script.
This time, they must do so with a netminder making his second NHL regular-season appearance. That said, Sergeev has also been effective this season with the Calgary Wranglers in the AHL, going 4-2-0, with a .907 save percentage and a 2.86 GAA. Those aren’t bad numbers for a player who has a combined 36 AHL/NHL starts.
If Sergeev can put up an encore performance to his NHL debut, the Flames could be okay.
Flames Turn To Unlikely Option In Net Against High-Scoring Avalanche