Don’t look now, but the Calgary Flames are just one point back from second place in the Pacific Division standings.
That’s among the three things we learned in the NHL on Monday night.
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The Pacific
The Stanley Cup playoff races are heating up and the Calgary Flames are in the thick of things.
A 4-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche vaulted the Flames into the first wild-card spot and one point away from the San Jose Sharks and Edmonton Oilers for second place in the Pacific Division.
Barring an upset, it looks as though the West standings feature a fairly locked in set of teams with positioning being the only thing left to determine. Calgary has six games remaining while a slew of others have seven left to play.
The Los Angeles Kings (77 points) have eight games remaining and trail the Blues — who beat Arizona Monday night — for the second wild card.
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What a night
Brian Gionta had a night to remember at home against the Florida Panthers.
The Sabres captain scored a power-play goal in his 1,000th NHL game as Buffalo doubled up the Panthers 4-2.
The 38-year-old winger joined some pretty exclusive company in the process by scoring in his 1,000th game.
The Sabres held a pre-game ceremony to ackowledge the accomplishment of Gionta, who has also played with the New Jersey Devils and Montreal Canadiens in his 15-year NHL career. The team presented him with a silver stick before the game.
Rally time
When you’re hot, you’re hot. And the Tampa Bay Lightning are currently no exception.
Down 4-1 midway through the second period, it seemed as though Tampa Bay was out of it. But two goals from Jonathan Drouin and another by Anton Stralman tied the game at 4-4. Yanni Gourde then beat Chicago Blackhawks goalie Scott Darling to win the game late in overtime and give the Lightning their third straight win.
The win, paired with the New York Islanders‘ 3-1 loss to the Nashville Predators, means that Tampa Bay is one point behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
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