With a desperate foe clinging to their playoff lives on the other side, the Flames had to be on their toes and dial it up a notch.
And, boy, did they ever.
But sometimes, Lady Luck conspires against you.
Tied at three entering the third period, what was initially a back-and-forth, seesaw battle officially entered the Bizarro World with an absolutely heartbreaking series of misfortunes.
First, Andrei Kuzmenko should have been credited with his second-career hat-trick, but an incorrect call by the officials took the go-ahead goal off the board. Blues defenceman Matthew Kessel knocked the puck down with a high stick in front, but referee Carter Sandlak inadvertantly thought Kuzmenko did before plunging it home along the goal line. And because the contact was made prior to the goal, the play was not reviewable.
Brandon Saad scored only moments later to give the Blues a 4-3 lead.
Because, of course.
The craziness continued as Rasmus Andersson and Yegor Sharangovich combined to shovel home a loose puck that would have tied it only 23 seconds later, but that, too, was called back after a coach's challenge determined the play was offside.
All this, less than three minutes into the period.
With Kuzmenko scoring earlier in the game, Jonathan Huberdeau had Calgary's other goal, while MacKenzie Weegar had a pair of helpers and Dustin Wolf finished with 14 saves.
"I liked the way that we played tonight," said Head Coach Ryan Huska. "It seems funny that the score ends up 5-3, ‘cause I didn’t feel like it was that type of game. I thought we deserved a better fate tonight."
