Hanley's game-winner helps Flames inch closer to wild-card berth

CALGARY — Having squeaked out a late win against lowly San Jose to open the Flames’ final 27 games of the season, Nazem Kadri was asked late Sunday if it was too early to start scoreboard-watching.

“Buddy, we were doing that two months ago,” smiled Kadri. “Where have you been?

“Even though we’ve got to play our own game and do our own thing, that fate kind of lies in our own hands, so we’re certainly watching scores around the league.

Minutes before the Flames wrapped up a 3-2 win over the Sharks, Vancouver lost 2-1 in Utah, allowing Calgary to climb within one point of the Canucks for the West’s final wild-card berth.

Never mind the fact the Flames still have seven weeks left in the regular season schedule, they knew Sunday’s matchup against the lowly Sharks verged on must-win territory.

With a daunting six-game road trip against a handful of juggernauts set to kick off against the league-leading Capitals Tuesday, the possibility of coughing up two points Sunday was very real when Tyler Toffoli tied it 2-2 early in the third.

Enter Joel Hanley.

A healthy scratch in all but two games the first six weeks of the season, the 33-year-old defenceman picked a fine time to pot his first of the season, which just so happened to be his first career game-winner. 

Moving in from the point to take a net-front dish from Jonathan Huberdeau while both teams played a man short, Hanley found himself in alone on Alexandar Georgiev and calmly roofed it with six minutes remaining.  

 “I don’t know what I was doing out there,” he laughed when asked if he was now a four-on-four specialist.

“Obviously, I haven’t scored a lot, but just to help the team get a win like that and contribute offensively feels really good.

“We’ve relied heavily on some of the top guys, and for guys like me and Roons (Kevin Rooney) to get some secondary scoring, we’re going to need that down the stretch.”

Hanley has been one of the feel-good stories in the room this season, as his perseverance paid off with what is now a regular gig on the second pairing alongside MacKenzie Weegar. He missed the last game before the break to be with his wife for the birth of their second child, Millie.

“Baby is healthy, and we won, so it feels great,” smiled Hanley, who has just four goals over ten NHL seasons.

“The first couple months, I was on the outside and hadn’t played a lot, but when I got the opportunity, I just wanted to make the best of it. It feels nice to play a little more and help the team with whatever I can do.”

As happy as the lads were for Hanley and Rooney, whose second-period goal was part of the fourth line’s best night in months, the overwhelming takeaway revolved around how much better the team will have to play on the road.

“For sure,” said Ryan Huska, whose squad had Connor Zary back in the lineup for the first time since he suffered a knee injury on Jan. 7.

“We found a way to win tonight, but the pace that we played at has to go way up from what we saw tonight.”

That was evident as the Flames counted on Dustin Wolf to make way too many big saves (27 in all) against a team that has just two wins in their last 16 games.

For a Flames team that had lost four in a row before the break, a loss Sunday would have been a horrific way to kick off the longest and most important roadie of the season.

Instead, they’ll jet off Monday with a sense of relief and hope that Kevin Bahl will be cleared to return to play.

“We found a way, and that’s really what it was all about today,” shrugged Kadri, who tied the game 1-1 with a power-play goal, giving him 20 goals for the seventh season.

“I don’t think it was our best game; our execution was a little bit sloppy, but we dug in. When you have unsung heroes step up, it energizes the group and makes us want to win even more for those guys.”