The Calgary Flames are refusing to go down quietly. With a crucial 5-2 win over the San Jose Sharks on April 13, the Flames not only extended their winning streak to two games but also kept their Stanley Cup Playoff hopes alive as the regular season enters its final stretch. Now boasting a record of 39-27-14, Calgary remains in the hunt for a Western Conference wild card spot, trailing the Minnesota Wild by three points and the St. Louis Blues by two.
Nazem Kadri, Calgary’s leading scorer with 30 goals and 29 assists this season, once again played a pivotal role in the latest win. The Flames have been flawless when hitting the four-goal mark or higher this season, improving to a perfect 15-0-0 in such games.
Their win over San Jose followed a similarly important 4-2 triumph against the Minnesota Wild on April 11. With just two games remaining, the Flames must avoid regulation losses and hope for favorable results from the teams they are chasing. Only once in NHL history has a team overcome a five-point deficit in the final four games to clinch a playoff spot — the 1958-59 Toronto Maple Leafs.
Flames Need to Win and for Wild and Blues to Lose
Calgary must beat the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday while hoping the Wild fail to earn a point against Anaheim and the Blues fall short in regulation against Utah. It’s a long shot, but stranger things have happened.
“We’ve got to continue to fight,” said defenseman MacKenzie Weegar in a postgame interview with Sportsnet’s Ryan Leslie.
The battle continues on Tuesday, with Calgary’s fate hanging in the balance and every point more important than the last. Can they turn what was supposed to be a season where they were simply hoping to play meaningful games down the stretch into a playoff run as the final two games mean everything?
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