– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
Follow @Koiki_Sport Follow @ALOST_Official
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY — If the Calgary Flames hope to complete a late-season turnaround and sneak into the postseason down the final stretch of games, they definitely hope that mirrors the same comeback that they performed on Friday night that ended up being one of their most inspirational victories of the season.
Jonathan Huberdeau’s game-winning goal with 3:20 remaining lifted the Flames to a 5-3 win over the New Jersey Devils inside Prudential Center on Thursday night. Nazem Kadri scored an empty-netter with under 12 seconds remaining, and tallies from Connor Zary and Daniil Miromanov earlier in the frame added up to Calgary outscoring the Devils 4-0 in the third period to come back from a 3-1 deficit.
Calgary has won two straight on their New York-area tour after it defeated the New York Rangers 2-1 on Tuesday, and it will finish its road trip with a matchup against the Islanders on Saturday afternoon.
The win also moved the Flames to within two points of the St. Louis Blues for the last Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. Before the consecutive victories, Calgary had lost three straight and four out of five.
Dustin Wolf made 26 saves for Calgary, who entered the third down by two after New Jersey got goals from Erik Haula early in the second and Paul Cotter with 28 seconds remaining to give the Devils a 3-1 lead. Matt Coronato’s power-play goal sandwiched those two New Jersey scores in the second.
“I liked our resiliency,” Wolf said. “Our second period probably wasn’t our best but the message in here was we have to find a way because these points are critical. We’re kind of in do-or-die range right now so it was a heck of an effort from the boys in the third period.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Thursday evening’s game, with photos taken by New York City-area photographer Matthew Last. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 14 pictures in total.
Follow @Koiki_Sport Follow @ALOST_Official
