The National Hockey League schedule can be a grind. This season, teams are playing 84 games over a 194 day regular season. That’s a game every 2.3 days. But there are pockets of the schedule where, due to building availability, broadcast schedules or just bad luck, teams play way more often.

Between Oct. 22 and Sunday night, the Calgary Flames played 10 games over 18 days. The schedule was functionally a game every second day, plus a back-to-back set to mix it up. On Sunday evening, the Flames completed this gauntlet with a scrappy, come-from-behind effort against the Philadelphia Flyers.

In a game where the Flames never held a lead, they battled to a 4-3 overtime victory over Dan Vladar and the Flyers.

The game was, in a way, representative of the Flames’ season to date.

“I thought for two periods, I felt we were… we looked sluggish,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “Flat is a better word, but I thought for the third period, we found a way and came alive. A couple little plays brought a little energy to our team, and once that started, I felt it was a little bit of a snowball effect where we just kept going into third.”

They trailed 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 during regulation. But they kept finding a way to battle back, getting key stops from Devin Cooley to keep the game close and goals at key times to draw even. Zayne Parekh scored in the first period to make it 1-1. Zach Whitecloud scored in the second period to make it 2-2. Joel Farabee scored a shorthanded goal in the third period to make it 3-3.

In overtime, Matt Coronato finished a three-on-one counter-punch rush for the Flames to give the Flames the 4-3 victory.

Appropriately enough, the Flames’ two offensive leaders during this recent run have been Farabee, with seven goals and 12 points, and Coronato, with two goals and 10 points. Both Cooley and Dustin Wolf have been rock-solid over the past 10 games, with Cooley going 4-1-0 with a 1.82 goals against average and .943 save percentage and Wolf going 2-1-1 with a 2.57 goals against average and .907 save percentage. (When Cooley was injured, rookie Arsenii Sergeev battled through a spot start against the powerhouse Colorado Avalanche, giving Wolf a night off on a back-to-back set.)

All-in-all, the Flames are far from a perfect hockey club, but they’ve made strides since their tough start to the season that were evident during their 18 day grind.

“I think we did a really good job,” said Huska. “Like finding a way to, one, win games, two, stay in games when we’re not at our best. That’s something that we’re learning how to do. And a tough stretch with some interesting travel for us. I think the guys came through it really well.”

The Flames return to action on Wednesday night when they host the New York Rangers.

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