Playoff outsiders Flames, Canadiens striving to improve chances

The Calgary Flames and Montreal Canadiens are longshot squads to make the Stanley Cup playoffs, but both head into Saturday's meeting in Calgary with a small bit of hope.

The Flames are renewed after Thursday's 4-1 comeback victory over the defending Stanley Cup-champion Vegas Golden Knights at home. Calgary sits eight points out of a playoff position with 16 games remaining, and it snapped a three-game losing skid immediately following the trade deadline.

"It was an embarrassing 72 hours for our team," said forward Blake Coleman, who scored twice against Vegas. "We maybe didn't handle our response to losing some guys and some friends (at the deadline), and we got slapped pretty hard for not showing up and being our best. At the end of the day if you've got pride and you get beat up like that, you better respond or you don't really belong in this league."

Due to a handful of injuries — a list that includes No. 1 goalie Jacob Markstrom — and trading away the last of their veteran pending restricted free agents, the Flames iced six rookies against the Golden Knights.

Among them was two-time American Hockey League goaltender of the year Dustin Wolf, who delivered a sparkling 28-save performance against Vegas, which included clutch stops seconds before both Coleman's game-winning third-period goal and the insurance marker by fellow freshman Matt Coronato.

"I didn't get the result against them earlier in the year, and it was nice to get a second chance and play the way I did, and also have the team play awesome in front of me," Wolf said. "As I've said, there's learning opportunities to come out of a loss, especially one where you get banged up pretty good. This feels good."

Montreal opens a five-game, make-or-break road trip sitting 11 points behind the New York Islanders for the Eastern Conference's final playoff position.

The Canadiens lost 2-1 in overtime to the Boston Bruins on Thursday, which gives them only one win in four games and three in their last 13 outings (3-7-3).

The loss was a bitter pill to swallow, but Montreal can build something off a strong outing against the Bruins, who are in the dogfight for top spot in the league standings.

"The atmosphere's great every time you play these games," forward Alex Newhook said. "It felt like a bit of a playoff game, you know, low scoring, it comes down to the wire, and unlucky to not get a win there, but we played a good game. There are a lot of positives to take from it."

Among the positives is how the Canadiens are doing a better job of defending, especially while on the penalty kill. Thanks to a perfect performance against the Bruins in snuffing all four of their power-play opportunities, the Canadiens have blanked their opposition's power plays in six consecutive games and erased 26 of 27 penalties over eight-plus games.

"It was a struggle for us early in the season," goaltender Sam Montembeault said. "We did a lot of video and a lot of adjustments. The guys are more confident now, been doing a really good job and the guys are blocking shots."

—Field Level Media