Flames Claim Share of Eighth in West

Neither of the NHL's conferences are populated with a slew of teams playing great hockey. Both playoff races are a bit muddy, as teams at the bottom of the top eight struggle to hold their position, only to find teams behind them struggling even more.

Through it all, however, no one in the Western Conference has hit the wall like the Colorado Avalanche. Once alone atop the Northwest Division, Colorado is now in extreme danger of missing the playoffs altogether.

Friday night, the Avalanche lost to Calgary 2-1 in Denver. The Flames tied for eighth in the West with that win.

As Adam Gretz noted Friday, Colorado had won four of five in the season series before Friday, with Calgary getting one loser point (a shootout loss) in addition to their win. But all the games were 3-2 finals, and were generally closely-contested contests.

On Friday, the Flames got goals from Nigel Dawes and Rene Bourque in support of Miikka Kiprusoff, who turned in one of his best games of the season. Kiprusoff stopped 35 of 36 Colorado shots, including 11 of 12 during a third period in which the Avalanche outshot the visitors 12-4. Included in that was a simply amazing glove save on Chris Stewart, who made what looked like a sure bid to tie the game in the final six minutes.

It's goaltending like that from Kiprusoff that could lift a talented but notably flawed Calgary team into the playoffs.

In terms of the standings, Colorado still holds down the eighth position on a tiebreaker. The Avalanche have more total wins (41 to Calgary's 40) and they have one more game left on the schedule (five total compared to four for Calgary). However, the Flames have the momentum right now, having won six of their last nine to erase what was a nine-point gap between these two teams in mid-March.