Anaheim vs Calgary: Flames to beat Ducks for 3rd game in a row

California will host another NHL regular season game on April 7, 05:00 (UTC+3) when local Anaheim will take on Calgary at the Honda Center.

Anaheim continues to fall apart at the finish of the regular season, though Dallas Eakins's team started the season strong, allowing them to clinch a playoff spot. However, serious problems began to appear in the second half of the regular season. As early as February the Californians began to lose momentum, and in March they fell apart, suffering an 11-game losing streak. In early April they beat Arizona 5-0, but the day before they were beaten by Edmonton 1-6 and dropped to the 12th place in the Western Conference standings.

The current regular season for Calgary is much better than the previous one, when they skipped the cup battles. It's already clear by now that the playoffs aren't in the bag for the Flames, although they've been misfiring of late. Darryl Sutter's men suffered three straight losses in March and April, but their opponent in that span was formidable: Colorado, Los Angeles and St. Louis. On the other hand, the day before, the Red-Yellows managed to take revenge on the Kings, beating them 3-2 on the road. It turns out that now Calgary is on the third line in the Western Conference standings.

Anaheim and Calgary are teams from different poles of the Western Conference standings. While the Ducks have already given up any chance of making the playoffs and are now among the outsiders, having lost 12 of their last 13 games, the Flames continue to fight for the highest possible seeding before the Cup battles. Of course, the Red and Yellows are much stronger than the California club at the moment, as evidenced by two straight wins in their head-to-head encounters. As a result, a bet on Calgary's win with odds of about 1.65 is called for.

Key stats

• Anaheim lost 12 of the last 13 games;
• Anaheim lost the last six home games;
• Calgary won four of the last five away games;
• Anaheim's last two face-offs with Calgary were won by the Flames.

Anaheim vs. Calgary encounters have been very productive of late. In the previous four face-offs, the opponents combined to score 30 pucks (7.50 average per game), which is a very solid figure, and the Flames were much more aggressive in this case, with 60% of the goals. Now we have the right to expect a high-scoring activity from the Red and Blues, as they scored an average of 3.49 goals on the season, while the Ducks conceded 3.24. Based on this, the optimal option seems to be an Calgary's Individual Total Over (3.5) at odds close to 1.85.

Andrew Mangiapane has come a long way in recent years to become one of Calgary's leading scorers. In the current regular season, the 26-year-old hockey player has already recorded 45 points (30 goals + 15 assists), which is his personal best performance. It is obvious that the Canadian is in great shape now and is a stable representative of the Flames' second line, so it is worth betting on his Total Over (0.5) points with odds of about 2.00.

Our prediction: Calgary will win.

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