The Dallas Stars and Calgary Flames will clash for the third time this series, and the first time in Dallas. The Flames went 25-12-4 on the road this year. Dallas was an impressive 27-10-4 at home in the regular season. Something will have to give here as we get ready for the puck drop at 9:30 pm Eastern Time.
The goalie matchup is projected to stay the same for the third game of this series as it has been all along. Jacob Markstrom and Jake Oettinger will face off once again. Both have been stellar in this series with Oettinger giving up 1 goal in the first game and Markstrom giving up 2 in the second game. I don’t think any of that changes here as both goaltenders should be on their “A” games.
Both of these teams have also struggled on the power play, but fantastic on the penalty kill. The Flames are 1/8 on their power play, and the Stars are 0/7 on theirs. There were half the number of penalties (5) in game 2 than there were in game 1 (10). Both these teams have played disciplined hockey all year. No reason that should change here.
If we look at the advanced stats, the Flames have a bit of an edge in the Corsi and Fenwick percentages. This means they’re getting better looks at scoring goals than the Stars. Neither team has been able to break through and put very many into the back of the net though. The expected goals for with both of these teams over the regular season has sat right about 5.7. In this playoff series the expected goals for have dropped to 3.95.
Dallas is a very defensive minded team and loves playing low scoring games, as they have done so all year. With this series tied 1-1, I don’t see there being any panic about either team rushing to score goals when one side or the other scores. Dallas hasn’t played a ton of fast up and down the ice hockey this season and I don’t expect to see that here either.
I believe the first two games of this series have shown us what we’re going to get here. A very defensive, slow paced, physical series. Either team can take it, but it will be a fairly low scoring series.
I’m taking the UNDER 5.5 -140 here for 2U.
