Canucks forward Elias Pettersson believes Wednesday's 4-3 shootout victory over the Calgary Flames can serve as a turning point for Vancouver as the Western Conference playoff race intensifies.
"It's huge, huge for our group," he said. "The battle everybody did, the effort. To be able to come back was good. Hopefully we can build on this."
Vancouver was one point behind the Flames for the second wild-card spot entering Wednesday's showdown. Now the two clubs are tied with 71 points, though Calgary has a game in hand.
It was a gutsy victory for the Canucks, who entered the third period down 3-2. Pettersson netted the equalizer past the midway mark of the final frame, and Conor Garland scored in the shootout to secure the win.
Captain Quinn Hughes - who returned from a four-game absence against the Flames - made sure to sing Pettersson's praises after the contest.
"Really happy for him," the star defenseman told Sportsnet. "Took a lot of crap this year, we obviously need him at this point in time with 17 games left. Showed up today, brought his A-game. We're gonna continue to need him to do that. ... It's been a hard little run for him, but he's a great player, and he's going to be just fine."
The Flames dictated play through the first two periods, but Vancouver pushed in the third, outshooting them 17-4 while dictating 94.5% of the expected goals at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.
"If we could mirror the first two periods and take that and bring it into the third period, then I think we're in good shape," Flames head coach Ryan Huska said. "We do a good job of skating, I think we're hard, we forecheck the right way the first couple periods. And then it's almost like we get on our heels."
Calgary defenseman Mackenzie Weegar was disappointed to leave points on the table given the game's importance.
"We circled this one on the calendar, I'm sure they had it circled on the calendar. ... Ultimately, that's a three-point loss there, not a one," he said.
Though Calgary is still in a playoff spot, Huska knows the Flames are in for a challenge the rest of the way.
"When you don't win a game, it's always opportunity missed, right?" he said. "Lots was made of this game, for sure, because it's Vancouver and the positions we were both in the standings. But again after tonight, we have 18 must-wins.
"That's the way we are going to continue to approach it."
