Henrik Sedin will try to put himself into position to win his first-ever scoring title tonight when his Vancouver Canucks host the Calgary Flames at GM Place in both team's regular-season finale.
This game has little meaning to both clubs as a whole. The Canucks are locked into the third seed in the Western Conference and possible first-round opponents include the Kings, Red Wings or Predators. The Flames, meanwhile, are set to miss the postseason for the first time since 2003.
The only thing worth keeping an eye on is Sedin, who is second in the NHL with 108 points, two shy of Pavel Bure's single-season team record of 110 set in 1992-93. Sedin fell one point back of the league lead after Washington's Alex Ovechkin notched three points in a win Friday night over Atlanta. Ovechkin will play in his final regular-season game Sunday versus Boston.
Sedin has two goals and five assists in five games versus the Flames this year, as well as 33 assists and 44 points in 55 lifetime contests versus them. He had an assist in Thursday's 4-2 setback in San Jose, giving the center four goals and 24 helpers over his last 19 games.
Pavol Demitra and Andrew Alberts scored for the Northwest Division-champion Canucks, who have lost two straight and are 29-8-3 at home this season. Andrew Raycroft allowed all four goals on 31 shots.
"I think we've got to get back to basics, we've got to play better," said Sedin. "This is a tough building to play in for sure. We knew that coming in. This is the time when we have to really dig deep and find ways to play better defensively."
The Flames will try to avoid ending their disappointing season on a four-game losing streak, as they were defeated by the Wild, 2-1, in a shootout on Thursday.
Nigel Dawes had a second-period goal for the Flames and Miikka Kiprusoff turned aside 23 shots, including three in overtime.
"We wanted to make sure that we had our game at the level it needed to be tonight, and guys were focused in on that," said Flames head coach Brent Sutter. "We played hard, certain things just didn't happen around the net for us."
The Flames have lost four of their last six on the road, where they are 20-14-6 this season.
Calgary has won three of five versus Vancouver this year, though it has dropped six of its last nine at GM Place.