5 Things - Flames @ Flyers

1. Last Time Out

Two for two.

Time to go for the hat-trick.

The Flames opened this four-game road trip with a 3-1 victory over the Wild on Tuesday and followed it up with a 6-3 win over the Predators Thursday night.

Saturday marks the first of a rare back-to-back set, starting against the Flyers in the City of Brotherly Love and finishing Sunday versus Connor Bedard and the Blackhawks.

All six goals in the Music City came from different players, with Connor Zary, Blake Coleman, Nazem Kadri, Rasmus Andersson, Noah Hanifin and Yegor Sharangovich lighting the lamp. Dan Vladar made his first start since Dec. 16 and put forth an impressive performance, making 30 stops.

The win put the Flames back above .500 at 17-16-5, a goal the team has chasing down for some time.

Click for the game recap

“It's good to get over the hump," said Coleman. "We've got to stay there. We've got two good road tests to finish it off, a couple day games here. You win those two games, you go back home feeling pretty good.”

The objective now for the Flames, who have won three in a row, is to stay above that mark and keep adding victories.

“We've been in this situation a few times where we've got to it and then we would lose that next game and find ourselves having to dig out again," said Head Coach Ryan Huska after the win in Nashville. "We want to try and gain a little bit of traction with stringing points together, so it becomes important. That next game now becomes the most important game of the year for us.”

Which brings us to Saturday's opponent, who the Flames beat to start an overall three-game winning streak on New Year's Eve at the Scotiabank Saddledome, posting a 4-3 victory.

Philly scored first in the outing and led 1-0 after the first period, but Mikael Backlund would tie it up in the second period and Dennis Gilbert would give them the lead in the third, with Nazem Kadri and Coleman rounding out the scoring.

Click here for game recap

2. Know Your Enemy

Philly has dropped two straight since that loss to the Flames, falling 5-1 to the Oilers on Jan. 2 in Edmonton, and then losing 3-2 in a shootout to the visiting Blue Jackets on Thursday.

Travis Konecny scored in the first period and then 4:29 into the third to give the Flyers a 2-0 lead, but Damon Severson tallied less than a minute later and former Hitmen star Jake Bean tied it to force OT and then the skills competition.

Johnny Gaudreau would get the lone shootout marker to ice the two points for Columbus. 

Samuel Ersson made 26 saves for Philly in the loss.

"We need to play with the 2-0 lead longer," Flyers coach John Tortorella told NHL.com's Adam Kimelman after. "That's where I think you can grind a team. But we give up the first one too quickly. When they score the second, that's where ... prior to that, they had very few chances, but they piled them up after the second goal. You take a point and go home."

Joel Farabee, who had a pair of helpers, said the team let their foot off the gas with the two-goal cushion.

"I don't think we necessarily played bad in the third, I just think we were trying to hold on instead of being aggressive," he told media. "When you do that, teams are too good in this league, they're going to get their chances. I feel like we've got to stay aggressive in the third there, keep the pressure on them and not try to sit back and win the game."

Kimelman reported the Flyers scratched forwards Cam Atkinson and Morgan Frost and used a lineup with 11 forwards and seven defencemen in the outing.

3. Fast Facts

Hey Now, You're An Star:

Elias Lindholm has been selected to represent the Flames at the 2024 NHL All-Star Game. Lindholm has registered eight goals and 17 assists for 25 points through 38 games so far this season and has two powerplay goals along with a shorthanded marker. This will be Lindholm’s first NHL All-Star Game appearance and is set to become the second Swedish player to represent the Flames in the All-Star Game, following Kent Nilsson in 1980 (while the franchise was based in Atlanta) and 1981. Lindholm currently leads all Flames forwards in time on ice per game at 21:00, and currently records the seventh-most time on ice per game among centres in the NHL, with the fifth-most ice-time total among centres this season at 797:43.

Click here for more on all-star voting

Closing In On History:

Mikael Backlund skated in his 946th NHL game on Thursday night in Nashville and is now just three games away from tying Mark Giordano for the second-most in franchise history. Backlund’s 946 games lead all Swedish-born skaters in Flames history and are the ninth-most among skaters from the 2007 NHL Draft.

4. Did You Know?

Dating back to the 2014-15 season, the Flames are 12-4-1 against the Flyers.

5. Players to Watch

Flames - Blake Coleman

Coleman is riding a three-game goal-scoring streak, and leads the team with 15 tallies and 29 points. He skated in his 500th NHL game when the Flames faced the Flyers on Dec. 31, scoring a goal to mark the occasion.

Flyers - Travis Konecny

The Philly winger has three goals and four points in his last two outings, and leads Philly with 35 points.