Flames by the Numbers:
Points Leader: Aleksander Barkov (75)
Goals Leader: Johnny Gaudreau (34)
Goalie: Craig Anderson (30 W, 0.919 PCT, 2.24 GAA)

Preds by the Numbers:
Points Leader: Patrice Bergeron (66)
Goals Leader: Patrice Bergeron (34)
Goalie: Roberto Luongo (41 W, 0.916 PCT, 2.07 GAA)

Regular Season Head to Head: Smashville (2-1-0-0)

Playoffs By the Numbers:

Calgary:
Points Leader: Brian Campbell (9)
Goals Leader: Johnny Gaudreau (5)
Goalie: Craig Anderson (8-1, 0.924 PCT, 1.86 GAA)

Nashville:
Points Leader: Valtteri Filppula (12)
Goals Leader: Patrice Bergeron (7)
Goalie: Roberto Luongo (8-3, 0.923 PCT, 2.12 GAA)

Analysis:
The Nashville Predators continue to roll through these playoffs after handily defeating the President’s Trophy winning Chicago Blackhawks in six games. If anyone is counting, the Preds just took out the two top teams in the regular season in the West after also dispatching the Dallas Stars in just five games in the first round.

The Calgary Flames meanwhile proved as predicted to be too much to handle for Jaroslav Halak and the Edmonton Oilers as they swept their second round series against the Oil while hardly breaking a sweat doing so.

Craig Anderson has maintained his stellar play for Calgary heading into the third round of the playoffs with an exceptional 0.924 sv% and 1.86 GAA while Johnny Hockey seems to have finally found his playoff touch lighting the lamp with four goals in as many games against the Oilers including the overtime winner in game one of the series.

On the other end of the rink, Roberto Luongo answered any questions there may have been about his first round performance against Dallas by shutting down the high powered offence of the Blackhawks by allowing just 5 goals in the final four games of the series, including a shutout in game 3, and improving his numbers to a more than respectable 0.923 sv% and a 2.12 GAA. Offensively, the Preds top line duo of Patrice Bergeron and Valtteri Filppula are on a roll combining for 12 goals and 23 points so far in these playoffs.

Head-to-head in the regular season these two teams only met three times with Nashville winning the series 2 games to 1.

Prediction:
Nashville will easily be the toughest opponent the Flames will have faced so far in these playoffs; they faced an Arizona Coyotes team that couldn’t find its groove in its net all season long despite the luxury of having both Carey Price and Mike Smith as their 1a and 1b goalies in the first round; and then hosting the aforementioned Edmonton Oilers in round two that came into these playoffs with an offense that wouldn’t scare most Bantam league teams.

Smashville on the other hand not only took out the top defensive team in the regular season in the BRHL in the Stars, but they also took out the top offensive team in the regular season in the league in the Hawks. They can beat you at playing a defensive game and they can beat you if you’re playing an offensive game. At this point Nashville is simply the team to beat in the west. Predators in 6.