It’s crunch time.
The Calgary Flames continue to win, but so do the St. Louis Blues and Vancouver Canucks. We’ll be looking at those three teams, as well as the Utah Hockey Club, in this article.
This is the wild card recap, where we look at how the three other teams battling the Flames fared for the final wild card the night before. The wild card recap will replace What’s Going On In The Pacific Division, at least until next season. This article will come after the busy days in the league, so on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Let’s take a look at what’s happened in the wild card race since Sunday!

The Flames love the comeback

In the past four games, the Flames have trailed at one point in the game. It gets even more extreme when looking at the past three games, as they’ve trailed in the third period and still clawed back to pick up the win.
The most recent game was a 4-3 overtime win against the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday. Adam Klapka opened the scoring midway through the first period with his second goal of the season, but the Kraken scored twice in the second to take a 2-1 lead into the third. With just over six minutes left in the game, Nazem Kadri scored a clutch goal to tie the game up.
Just over two minutes later, Rasmus Andersson scored his 10th of the season, but Jordan Eberle scored with 90 seconds left in the game to send it to overtime. Kadri scored his second of the game to give the Flames a 4-3 overtime win, keeping them on pace with the St. Louis Blues.
Next up for the Flames is a home game against the Dallas Stars on Thursday. Their schedule is about to get tougher at end March, as they also face the Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche to end the month. However, the Stars play the night before, and the Oilers will play three games in four days after the two Alberta teams meet on Saturday.

The Blues win… twice

The St. Louis Blues have played two games since the last wild card recap, defeating the Nashville Predators 4-1 on Sunday and the Montréal Canadiens 6-1 on Tuesday.
Against the Predators, the Blues jumped out to a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Jordan Kyrou and Alexandre Texier. The Predators cut the lead in half early in the second period, but the Blues scored an insurance goal midway through the third period and iced the game thanks to an empty net goal.
On Tuesday, Kyrou scored the opener once again, but the Canadiens tied it less than a minute later. It was all the Blues from there though, as exactly a minute later, Dylan Holloway scored the game-winner. Robert Thomas and Texier scored in the second period to make it 4-1, followed by Philip Broberg and Zach Bolduc’s two goals in the third period to give the Blues a 6-1 victory.
The Blues return to action on Thursday with a game against the Predators in Tennessee. They’ll finally play a tough team on Saturday as they head to Denver to take on the Avalanche. They’ve won their last seven in a row.

The Canucks scored another late goal to win in a shootout

The Canucks only played one game since Sunday’s article, winning 4-3 in a shootout to the New Jersey Devils.
Pius Suter opened the scoring midway through the first period, but the Devils tied it thanks to Timo Meier’s 21st of the season midway through the second. Meier scored again with just under nine minutes left to play in the third, but the Canucks had an answer thanks to Jonathan Lekkerimäki. 
Erik Haula scored to give the Devils a 3-2 lead with six and a half minutes left in the game. However, the Canucks scored another last-minute goal as Conor Garland tied the game. They won in the shootout.
The Canucks are back in action on Wednesday, as they continue their Eastern Conference road trip (sandwiched between road games against Central Division teams) against the New York Islanders.

The Hockey Club loses big to the Red Wings

After a huge victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday, the Utah Hockey Club followed that up with a disappointing 5-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Monday.
Albertan Dylan Guenther opened the scoring on the power play for his 26th goal of the season early in the first period, but it went downhill from there. Elmer Söderblom tied the game less than two minutes later. Early in the second period, Marco Kasper scored the game-winning goal, and the Red Wings added three in the third period.
The Hockey Club returns to action on Thursday in a rematch against the Lightning on Thursday.

How the standings look

The St. Louis Blues continue to hold the final Wild Card spot thanks to a 38-28-7 record with 83 points. Not far behind are the Calgary Flames, who have a 34-25-11 record with 79 points, but have three games in hand meaning they still control their own destiny.
Behind the Flames are the Vancouver Canucks, who have a 33-26-12 record with 78 points. They’ve played one more game than the Flames. Lastly, the Utah Hockey Club has a 32-28-11 record with 75 points, eight points back of the Blues but with two games in hand.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for FlamesNation, Oilersnation, and Blue Jays Nation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
Sponsored by bet365: