NHL Hockey Betting: Calgary Flames at Dallas Stars

Two hard to figure out Western Conference teams do battle in Texas as the Dallas Stars host the Calgary Flames. Both teams are right at the .500 mark with the Stars at 10-10-6 on the year and the Flames at 13-13-2. The Stars are 4-4-2 in their last 10 and 6-3-2 at home while the Flames are 6-3-1 in their last 10 with a 7-6-2 record on the road. They’ve also won three straight. The Stars are tied with Nashville for 5th place in the Central Division (26 points) but are just two points behind the teams tied for third (Minnesota and Winnipeg) and six back of the second place St. Louis Blues. The Flames are tied for fourth place in the Pacific with Los Angeles but are just 1 back of third place Anaheim and just 3 back of co-leaders Edmonton and San Jose.

The Flames appear to have found their starting goalie–that’s not a surprise since they signed former St. Louis Blues’ standout Brian Elliott in the off season. What is a surprise is that backup Chad Johnson has taken over the starting gig leaving Elliott (for now at least) as one of the highest paid backups in the NHL. Johnson is 10-4-1 with a 2.11 goals against average and a 0.928 save percentage. Johnson’s solid play gives the Flames a solid edge over Dallas starter Antti Niemi who is 5-3-3 on the year with a 3.20 goals against average and a 3.20 save percentage.

The teams have split their last four meetings with each winning once on ‘enemy ice’. The Stars won the only meeting of this season to date taking a 4-2 victory at the Saddledome on 11/10/16. The Flames really look to have things heading their way and recently welcomed goal scoring machine Johnny Gaudreau back to the lineup. Dallas has a number of injuries with Patrick Sharp, Johnny Oduya, Jiri Hudler, Mattias Janmark and Ales Hemsky out long term. Flames look to be in better form right now and with the Stars having the worst team goals against average in hockey (3.27) they look vulnerable to the Calgary snipers including the aforementioned ‘Johnny Hockey’. If Johnson continues to shine in the Flames’ net this could be a banner year for Calgary hockey fans.

BET CALGARY FLAMES +125 OVER DALLAS STARS