Can flickering Flames still find their way to the playoffs?

The Calgary Flames pulled off another thrilling win on Monday night, coming back from down 2-0 in the third period to beat the Colorado Avalanche in the shootout. While the Western Conference wild card race is starting to look like it’s the St. Louis Blues‘ to lose, the Flames aren’t out of it yet, as they sit only five points behind with two games in hand.

Colby Cohen and Frank Seravalli talked on Daily Faceoff Live about the Flames’ win, and how they’ve managed to stick around in the playoff race up to this point.

Colby Cohen: Look at the resiliency. They get two third period goals from fourth liners, guys who don’t normally contribute. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Frank Seravalli: The way the Flames score goals this year, I’m going to say that any goals are a good thing.

Colby Cohen: I was just going to say, you’d like to see your top players getting it, but hey, you’ll take it from anywhere. And the fact that they probably could have won that game. Scott Wedgewood played really well. He made a lot of grade-A saves that you probably don’t expect him to make.

I think the Flames have done an admirable job. You look at some of the wins against the New York Rangers, against the New Jersey Devils, a couple overtime wins against the Seattle Kraken and the New York Islanders, the Edmonton Oilers game, they still get a point in, and two against Colorado.

But can I just give you a concern about the Calgary Flames? The last five starts for Dustin Wolf, .897 save percentage, .778, .897, .897, and an .808. He’s playing a lot of hockey, it’s a lot of big games, but it is concerning to me.

Good for a Dan Vladar coming in last night. He had a .933 in the game, but it concerns me. How are they catching St. Louis or maybe the Minnesota Wild with the way things are going, if they’re not getting big-time goaltending right now from Dustin?

Frank Seravalli: I’m with you. The goaltending has been there all season long, and it’s not that Wolf is failing them. I went [back and forth] because you’ve got Wolf on a little bit of a downturn, and at the same time, Dan Vladar has stepped up. He’s got five wins in his last eight appearances, and one of those games, he came in relief of Dustin Wolf, the first time that Calgary had pulled their goalie all season long. If you’re talking about a tandem punching above its weight class as a whole all season long, that’s the Flames.

You can watch the full episode here…