The Calgary Flames surprising first half has them in the thick of a competitive Western Conference playoff race. Don Chaney Jersey . Behind the talents of rookie Johnny Gaudreau, the Flames will look to keep pace Thursday night when they face the Minnesota Wild in the second of a six-game homestand. After representing Calgary (26-19-3) at last weekends All-Star festivities, Gaudreau emerged from the break to score twice in a 4-1 win over Buffalo on Tuesday. The goals gave Gaudreau 15, tying him for the team lead with Sean Monahan and moving him into third place among rookies behind Filip Forsberg of Nashville and Ottawas Mike Hoffman, who each have 16. Just being around the guys that were in that locker room this weekend, its exciting for me to be a part of that, Gaudreau said. Now Im excited for the second half of the season. The 21-year-olds top performances have translated into nothing but success for the Flames, who are 9-0-0 when he records at least two points. Monahan and Jiri Hudler, Gaudreaus linemates, have been equally vital to the Flames. Monahan can extend his point streak to a career-best six games while Hudler, tied for the team lead with 41 points, assisted on both of Gaudreaus goals Tuesday. Playing with (Hudler) and (Monahan), those are two skilled guys, Gaudreau said. Its hard not to create offensive chances when youre playing with two guys like that. Were making plays in the offensive zone. Jonas Hiller was 0-3-0 with a 3.81 goals-against average in his previous four appearances before stopping 17 shots, and hell get the nod tonight as well. Hes 11-5-1 with a 2.31 GAA in 17 starts against the Wild. Minnesota (21-20-6) came out of the break on a good note with a 2-1 victory in Edmonton on Tuesday. Still, coach Mike Yeo sees needed improvement for his last-place team. Puck management was poor tonight. Very poor, Yeo said. We pride ourselves on being a team that can defend well, but when you turn pucks over like that, youre not in a position to defend. Minnesota had dropped eight of its previous 10, and excluding a 7-0 win against Buffalo on Jan. 15, had scored 18 goals over that span while allowing 37. The Wild rank near the bottom of the league with 2.89 goals allowed per game. Devan Dubnyk stopped 23 shots to bounce back after he was pulled in the second period of his previous start Jan. 20. He owns a 2.04 GAA in five games since being acquired from Arizona on Jan. 14, and has been the top option after Darcy Kuemper was sent to Iowa of the AHL for a conditioning assignment and Niklas Backstrom going 0-5-2 with a 4.12 GAA over his last eight appearances. Minnesota sits ahead of only Edmonton and Arizona in the West but is just seven points behind the Flames for the second wild-card spot. The Wild are 6-2-1 in the last nine meetings, beating visiting Calgary 3-2 in the last one March 3. Wild (48PTS) at Flames (55PTS) MIN was 2-0-1 vs CGY last season CGY has gone 2-1-0 past 3 at home vs MIN CGY (26-19-3): 5-1-0 past 6 games, 18GF, 1/18 on PP Monahan (4G, 2A) 5 game PT streak MIN (21-20-6): 1-1-1 past 3 games, 7GF, 3/11 on PP Parise (5G, 1A) past 5GP Projected Flames Lines Gaudreau-Monahan-Hudler Bouma-Backlund-Jones Raymond-Jooris-Colborne Byron-Stajan-Bollig Giordano-Brodie Russell-Wideman Diaz-Engelland Hiller - Starting Ramo Projected Wild Lines Parise-Granlund-Vanek Zucker-Koivu-Pominville Cooke-Brodziak-Fontaine Carter-Coyle-Niederreiter Suter-Brodin Scandella-Spurgeon Prosser-Folin Dubnyk Backstrom Rodney McCray Jersey . Ted Ligety, Mikaela Shiffrin, Bode Miller and Tim Jitloff underlined the squads enormous potential on the Rettenbach glacier in Austria. John Block Jersey . The Incheon-based tea, of the Korea Baseball Organization said the deal for the 35-year-old Scott included a $50,000 signing bonus. Scott reached the major leagues with Houston in 2005 and hit 23 homers or more for Baltimore each year from 2008-10. https://www.cheaprocketsonline.com/1397z-austin-rivers-jersey-rockets.html . Granada defender Diego Mainz barged into the back of Villa to send the Spain striker to the ground inside the area and Costa stepped up to the spot to score his 12th league goal in the 38th minute. Costa showed no effects of the news that his Brazilian citizenship may be revoked after he elected to play for Spains national team, as the forward was a constant threat for Atletico and forced several saves from goalkeeper Roberto.HOUSTON -- Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti fractured two vertebrae and broke his right ankle when his car went airborne into a fence Sunday on the last lap of the Grand Prix of Houston. The accident showered debris into the grandstand, injuring 13 fans and an IndyCar Series official. Franchitti, who also sustained a concussion, was transported by ambulance to a hospital. The four-time series champion had surgery on his ankle was being held overnight, and IndyCar said a series official was treated for minor injuries. Houston Fire Department spokesman Ruy Lozano said 13 fans were injured, and that 11 were treated on site at Reliant Park. Lozano said two were taken to the hospital for treatment. The accident in Turn 5 was reminiscent of Dan Wheldons fatal 2011 crash at Las Vegas in that competitors had to drive through the wreckage. It was a sobering moment for race winner Will Power, who broke his back in Las Vegas crash, and for Scott Dixon, who took control of the IndyCar championship race Sunday but passed by teammate Franchittis car and waved in an attempt to get an update on his condition. "The smells and the visuals, for me, and even talking to Will, you have the remnants of Vegas popping into your head with you coming around the corner and you cant drive through it because theres a field of debris," Dixon said. "There was no near the amount of damage that we saw (in 2011), but seeing the replay was a big shock." The accident occurred after contact between Franchitti and Takuma Sato sent Franchittis car launching over Satos and into the fence. Parts and pieces from both cars flew into the grandstand and Franchittis badly damaged car bounced back onto the track. E.J. Viso then hit Satos car. The caution came out to immediately freeze the field, preventing Dixon from making a final attempt on passing Power for the win. Dixon won Saturdays first race of the doubleheader weekend and settled for second after Franchittis crash. Power initially seemed shaken when he climbed from his car and admitted the accident reminded him of Las Vegas, where he and Wheldon both sailed into the fence. "I just saw Darios car and him sitting in it with a lot of damage, and yes, thats what it reminded me of," Power said. "I hate seeing that. We try to keep these cars on the ground." The accident ended a weekend that saw Dixon move into the points lead following mechanical failures for Helio Castroneves on consecutive days. Castroneves came to Houston with a 49-point lead over Dixon. But a gearbox problem Saturday when Dixon won allowed Dixon to pull within eight points. Then his gearbox broke on Sunday, and Dixon now has a 25-point lead in the standings and needs only to finish fifth or better in the Oct. 19 finale in California to win his third IndyCar title. "Its still going to come down to the wire," he said. "Its still going to be the last lap, last corner kind of situation. At least I hope that it ends that way." Castroneves fiinished 23rd. Otis Thorpe Jersey. He had started on the pole, got a great jump on the standing start to get past Dixon for the lead, but Dixon was screaming on his radio within minutes that Castroneves car was leaking oil everywhere and it was splashing onto Dixons tires and visor. Castroneves said little to his Penske Racing team, but detected a vibration in his car with every shift of the gears after just a handful of laps. The problem worsened and he came to a complete stop on the course at Reliant Park after just 11 laps. "Its frustrating and disappointing," Castroneves said. "It hurts. It really hurts." His car was towed to the garage with a broken gearbox, Castroneves made the long walk back still wearing his helmet, and team owner Roger Penske retreated without comment into a team transporter. The team eventually replaced the gearbox and Castroneves returned to the track, 36 laps down and needing a miracle in Fontana, where the three-time Indianapolis 500 winner was fastest during an open test last week. "The racing isnt over, we know that. Weve seen this thing go up and down," team owner Penske said. "I think Wills performance today shows the speed the team has in the cars. Weve been here before, and well go to a track we like and maybe it will bring us some luck." But Penske said Castroneves will likely have to change his engine before the finale which will incur a 10-spot penalty on the starting grid at Fontana. "Its a long race and were going to go for it," said Penske, adding "it doesnt make sense, as far as Im concerned" that reliability and durability failed twice in two days in a season in which Castroneves had been the only driver to complete every lap heading into Houston. Dixon said his strategy didnt change when Castroneves pulled over Sunday with his problem. Dixon said he saw Castroneves drive over a bump in Turn 1 under yellow that had caused problems all weekend and it caused some of the underwing to fall off of his car. Dixon said oil began pouring out of Castroneves car. "He hit really hard going through Turn 1 kink, instead of sticking to the left there, for some reason he went right in the middle and thats when some of the underwing fell off when he hit that hard," Dixon said. "With the amount of oil that was coming out of that thing, I knew it was pretty terminal. "But at that point you are thinking you still want to win the race, and Will was being super aggressive and trying to win the race and help his teammate." Penske praised Power for holding off Dixon for the victory. "With Will out there battling and taking some points away, he got his job done," Penske said. Power said his job in Fontana will be to help his teammate. "Going into Fontana, its all about Helio winning a championship, so whatever I can do," Power said. "If Helio needs to win the race and I need to be somewhere in between him and Dixon, then thats what were aiming for." ' ' '