In order to stay in contention, Calgary needed a win against Vegas and help from either the Minnesota Wild, who rallied for a 3-2 overtime win against the Anaheim Ducks, or the St. Louis Blues, who defeated the Utah Hockey Club 6-1.

Nazem Kadri had a goal and an assist, and Morgan Frost, Mikael Backlund and Adam Klapka scored for the Flames (40-27-14), who have points in seven straight (5-0-2). Dustin Wolf made 38 saves.

Brandon Saad had a goal and two assists, Tomas Hertl had a goal and an assist, and Pavel Dorofeyev and Nicolas Roy scored for the Golden Knights (49-22-10), who will face the Wild in the Western Conference First Round. Ilya Samsonov made 24 saves.

Dorofeyev put Vegas ahead 1-0 at 5:25 of the first period when his shot from the right-side boards deflected off both Kadri and MacKenzie Weegar and past Wolf.

Frost tied it 1-1 at 10:11 with a one-timer that squeaked through Samsonov’s legs on the power play.

Roy put the Golden Knights up 2-1 at 14:52. He finished a backhand-to-forehand deke with a shot over Wolf’s glove on a clear-cut breakaway sprung by a pass from Ivan Barbashev near center ice.

Hertl pushed it to 3-1 at 19:36 with a one-timer on Saad’s cross-slot pass.

Kadri scored on the power play 32 seconds into the third period to trim the lead to 3-2, and Backlund tied it 3-3 at 1:04 with a wrist shot from the high slot that beat Samsonov five-hole.

Klapka put Calgary ahead 4-3 at 11:01 when he redirected a shot by Brayden Pachal past Samsonov’s right pad, but Saad tied it 4-4 at 11:12, skating in alone and putting a wrist shot on net that deflected up off Wolf, looped over his head and was pushed into the net as he skated backward to locate the puck.