The Calgary Flames and their flickering playoff hopes will look to complete a perfect two-game road trip when they visit the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday.
The Flames (37-27-13, 87 points), are four points back of the Minnesota Wild for the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot. Calgary has one game in hand on the Wild, with five remaining in the regular season.
The Flames are not yet in “must-win” territory but are in a “can’t-lose” position. The desperation in their situation was key to their 3-2 comeback victory over the last-place San Jose Sharks on Monday.
“We’re fighting for our life every day right now. We can’t really lose any hockey games going forward,” goaltender Dustin Wolf said. “(Beating San Jose) was a great start to the trip.”
Against the Sharks, Wolf made 17 of his 29 total saves in the first period until his teammates could rally. The Flames broke out with a three-goal third period.
“He saved our game, to be honest,” said forward Adam Klapka, whose goal started the comeback. “He made some (Dominik) Hasek saves there.”
Calgary is looking to complete a four-game season sweep of the Ducks. The Flames have won four straight and seven of eight meetings. The Flames have won the last nine visits to Anaheim.
The Flames on Tuesday called up from the junior ranks defenseman Zayne Parekh, the ninth pick overall in the 2024 draft. Parekh collected 33 goals and 107 points in 61 regular-season games for the Saginaw Spirit of the OHL.
“Whether I play or not, I’m going to be the No. 1 supporter of this team,” Parekh said. “I’m hoping the team makes the playoffs, because I’m more excited to see what the city looks like come playoff time.”
The Ducks (34-35-8, 76 points) are looking to build on a 3-2 home-ice victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Anaheim snapped a two-game skid, which included a 4-1 loss in Calgary last week, but coach Greg Cronin was not about to give his charges too much credit.
Cronin made no bones about the fact his team played an unstructured game. The Ducks surrendered far too many turnovers and odd-man rushes against, players were taking too long of shifts and being short-handed six times does not follow the game plan.
“I didn’t think we had a very good game,” Cronin said. “They had more urgency to the way they played, a little more precise. They were more aggressive. We won a game because of our penalty killing and our goalie was our best player on the ice.”
Cutter Gauthier scored twice early in the second period to turn a deficit into a 2-1 lead, and then Mason McTavish netted his 21st goal of the season for the Ducks, but the star was definitely goaltender Lukas Dostal, who stopped 45 shots and snuffed six Oilers power plays, including nearly all of a four-minute advantage to start the third period.
“We are playing a little bit more tighter,” Dostal said of his team’s penalty kill. “There’s a lot of broken plays and I can track the puck better, and obviously they block the shots a lot, so just props to them. They’re there to help me and they’ve been doing a great job lately.”
With his goals, McTavish reached the 20-goal mark for the first time in his career, and has collected seven points (three goals, four assists) in seven games.
