The Calgary Flames have been lurking around the playoff race in the Western Conference much of the season.
On Friday night, they closed the gap between the themselves and the playoffs with a 2-1 win over the Senators in Ottawa.
Calgary is one point back of the Los Angeles Kings for the second wild card spot.
Sam Bennett and Matt Stajan struck for goals in the win.
“We take those two points and fly home,” Stajan said. “We had a good trip point-wise, but as a group it’s nice to get the two points, but you’ve got to learn. You’ve got to learn how to close out games in this league.”
Calgary improved to 34-25-11.
David Rittich made 29 saves to pick up the win.
Now the Flames need to keep the wins coming to overtake the second position in the west.
“We’ve got to press the reset button and go home. Obviously, home ice has been tough for us this season, but there’s no better time right now to turn things around. We don’t have a choice.” the Flames’ Curtis Lazar said after the win.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored the lone goal for the Senators in the loss.
“I think we were a little too checked out. We scored a goal later there and that kind of got us going, but you can’t [just] play the last five minutes of every game. It doesn’t really work that way,” the Senators’ Erik Karlsson said.
[WATCH:Â All Flames vs. Senators highlights]
Mike Condon made 35 saves in the hard luck loss where he received no offensive support.
“I thought he was great,” Senators head coach Guy Boucher said of Condon. “When I look back on a few of these games that he played really well, it’s the games that we didn’t score any goals.”
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