Well, they’re certainly never boring, are they?

The Calgary Flames were pretty handily out-played by a scrappy San Jose Sharks team in the early minutes of Sunday night’s game at the Saddledome. But just as fans were potentially getting a bit anxious about their team’s playoff chase hitting a wall with three games left, the Flames managed to turn the tide.

The Flames rallied back from an early deficit to beat the Sharks by a 5-2 score.

The Sharks are a team that’s playing loose and carefree, with their playoff fate long sealed. And they looked loose and carefree – and fast – to start Sunday’s game. The Sharks registered the first nine shots of the game, including a rebound that was batted past Dustin Wolf by Tyler Toffoli to give the Sharks a lead 3:09 into the game.

“We had a slower start to the game, but we had a great goaltending effort to start with, and then we got our game after that,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska following the game. “So I give our group a lot of credit. They are a resilient team no matter what the situation is. So I’m proud of them.”

Midway through the first period, on the fourth shot registered on Sharks netminder Georgi Romanov, the Flames managed to tie the game. Adam Klapka fed the puck to MacKenzie Weegar, entering the zone from the Flames’ bench, and Weegar’s shot found the net.

“We were getting outplayed badly at that point,” said Huska. “So I think it allowed us to catch our breath for sure.”

“I’d say after that goal, I thought we kind of settled down, found our game,” said Weegar, noting the team’s forecheck after that point.

Huska added that the go-ahead goal by Klapka off a feed from Nazem Kadri “kind of brought us back to reality that we’re okay here, take a deep breath and just go and play.”

“We came in the room after the first… nobody was happy after the first, but nobody was upset at anybody,” said Weegar. “We just kind of, we knew our game was going to come around and had some composure and we turned it around in the second.”

The Flames entered the third period with the score tied 2-2 and the group knowing they needed a win – ideally in regulation – to maximize their playoff chances. 90 seconds into the frame, Yegor Sharangovich scored to give the Flames a 3-2 lead after Morgan Frost settled the puck down in the Sharks zone.

“It’s a good couple of bounces and Frosty made a good play and I just scored a goal,” summarized Sharangovich following the game.

Sharangovich added an empty net goal to give him four goals over the Flames’ past three games. Sharangovich has been dangerous offensively over the last little bit, which teammate Jonathan Huberdeau attributed to him changing up his routine.

“He changed his pre-game meal,” revealed Huberdeau. “He’s been eating salmon, so it’s been helping him. Risotto and salmon. So that’s what he’s going to eat until the end of the year.”

Sharangovich confirmed that he had changed up his eating habits recently, making the change from chicken to salmon and risotto “last month.”

“Just my wife told me you should try something different,” said Sharangovich. ” I would try it once. It works and just keep it, you know.”

The meal change-up may seem minor, but Weegar noted that small changes can be big for athletes.

“Honestly, when you change something like that, it actually, for a hockey player, it does go a long way,” said Weegar. “So now he’s got that in his routine. It might have changed something mentally for him. But he’s fine right now. He’s got lots of confidence. And I feel like he seems like he’s having a lot more fun out there. He’s looser. He’s talking a little bit more. It’s the Yegor from last year that, you know, is getting timely goals for us. So it’s nice to see.”

Sharangovich’s first goal gave him 100 in his NHL career, making him the third Belarusian in NHL history to his that mark.

The Flames stayed out of the penalty box until early in the third period against the Sharks, so their penalty kill wasn’t especially busy. However, shortly after Sharangovich gave them a 3-2 lead a Blake Coleman minor gave the Sharks a big opportunity to tie the game back up.

The Sharks had a superb opportunity to draw even after the puck ricocheted off the Zamboni gate and bounced out to the front of the net to Toffoli. But Wolf made perhaps the biggest stop of the game to maintain the Flames’ lead.

The Flames have killed off 52 of 60 opposition advantages since the 4 Nations Face-Off break, and they’ve scored as many shorthanded goals over the past 10 games (1) as they’ve allowed power play goals (1). Huska credited the work interim assistant coach Trent Cull has done with the penalty kill for helping “compress” the group’s coverage and making the chances they allow be more predictable for their goaltenders.

“It’s been very good since Four Nations,” said Huska. “You know, at the beginning of the year, we talked a lot about it not being on the same level as we expected it to be. The power play had stretches where it was winning us games, but the penalty kill was letting us down too often. It’s flipped now where the penalty kill, when it’s going out there, I really believe that they feel like we’re getting the job done. And I think that’s the mentality that you want your team to have in all situations. But our penalty kill does have that right now.”

The Flames’ victory allows them to live for another few days as they pursue a playoff spot. They sit two points behind St. Louis and three points behind Minnesota, with two games remaining in the regular season.

Now, focus now shifts to Tuesday night. St. Louis faces Utah and Minnesota faces Anaheim, with both games starting at 6 p.m. MT, an hour before the Flames host the Vegas Golden Knights in their final regular season home date. The Flames do not control their own fate, and are reliant on regulation losses by the Blues or Wild – ideally both – to clear a pathway to the post-season.