By Jerry Brown | NHL.com Correspondent 
GLENDALE - Less than a week ago, the Coyotes sat in 12th place in the Western Conference standings and would have been overjoyed to find themselves in the middle of the playoff hunt.

Six days, four consecutive wins and eight points later, that isn't good enough anymore. Now that the Coyotes (26-21-8) have a foothold in the playoff race, they're wondering how far they can push their longest winning streak of the season.

Phoenix captain Shane Doan scored on a power-play one-timer with 1:53 left in overtime (see KEY MOMENT below) and goalie Mike Smith made 22 saves to beat his fourth straight playoff contender as the Coyotes jumped over Minnesota into eighth place in the conference with a 2-1 win over the Calgary Flames on Thursday at Jobing.com Arena.

This latest win – coming on the heels of victories against over San Jose on Saturday, Detroit on Monday and Dallas on Tuesday -- coupled with Minnesota's 5-2 loss to Vancouver on Thursday left Phoenix two points ahead of the Wild, Dallas and Calgary. The view from above that pack sure beats the alternative.

"Nine days ago we'd lost to Anaheim and we were five points out of the playoffs with, I think, four teams above us," said Doan, whose 16th goal of the season ended a long night of grinding hockey. "Now you're back where you want to be, but at the same time we can't be content with that. We have to keep pushing and see how far with can take this."

He added: "We're not looking to just crawl. We're trying to run with this."

The Flames (25-22-8) got the tying goal from red-hot Olli Jokinen – his fifth in three games – with 15:59 left in regulation that eventually set the game to overtime.

But Mikael Backlund tripped Daymond Langkow in the corner 2:07 into overtime, and the Coyotes hemmed Calgary in their zone for more than a minute before ending the game. With Calgary penalty-killer Blair Jones hit in the foot by a puck and unable to move, Phoenix had an extra advantage and Radim Vrbata sent a saucer pass across the slot that Doan blasted from inside the left circle, beating goalie Leland Irving cleanly.

"You go on the road and get four points out of six, you can look at it and say it was a decent trip," Calgary Head Coach Brent Sutter said of his team's 1-0-2 trip to the West, which included a 4-3 win at San Jose on Wednesday. "We closed the gap a little bit."

Photo by Norm Hall.

The Coyotes meanwhile, used a pole vault. With five wins in their last six games, Phoenix is suddenly just four points behind Pacific Division-leading San Jose (which has four games in hand) and two points behind the second-place Los Angeles Kings, who lost in Florida on Thursday.

"It was a sloppy game, there were pucks bouncing all over the place," Coyotes Head Coach Dave Tippett said. "That's what it's going to be like (down the stretch) … you've got to find ways to get points. We'll take the points, stick those in the bank and move on."

Irving, playing for just the fifth time all season and the first since allowing six goals in 24 minutes in a 9-0 loss to Boston last month, made 11 of his 34 saves in the first period but was victimized when Kyle Chipchura's takeaway led to a two-on-one rush. Taylor Pyatt passed up a chance to feed teammate Gilbert Brule and fired a low shot that beat Irving between the pads at 7:43 for his seventh goal of the season and first in 11 games.

Smith, who has allowed just three goals in the last three games, made 10 saves in the first period and several of them were tough. He made a big early stop on Jones, back-to-back stops on Mike Cammalleri and Blake Comeau in the slot and a glove stab on Tim Jackman late in the period.

The Flames, playing on weary legs after Wednesday's win in San Jose, briefly lost center Alex Tanguay midway through the first period when he was hit in the face by a deflected centering pass from teammate Jarome Iginla. Tanguay skated off with a trail of blood following him all the way to the bench but returned early in the second period wearing a full facemask.

Photo by Norm Hall.

Though they were better-rested, the Coyotes couldn't get the tempo of the game up where they wanted, and the slower pace allowed the Flames to hang around until they finally capitalized while playing 4-on-4 after Keith Yandle couldn't walk away from a scrum with Calgary's Cory Sarich.

With both foursomes on the ice for almost two full minutes – the Coyotes were unable to clear their zone twice – Mark Giordano's shot from the point hit Jokinen in the upper leg and deflected past Smith. It was the 17th goal of the season for the red-hot Jokinen, who had a hat trick against the Sharks in San Jose on Wednesday.

Moments later, Yandle got into another scrum with Backlund and drew the extra roughing minor when he punched Backlund while they were both being held by the linesmen. But the Coyotes killed off the Calgary power play and cashed in when they got a chance in overtime.

► EDITOR'S NOTE: Dave Vest of phoenixcoyotes.com edited this story and compiled this recap.

Coyotes captian Shane Doan's game-winning goal in overtime came 58 seconds after Calgary's Mikael

Doan

Backlund was called for tripping. Crisp passing by Ray Whitney and Radim Vrbata set up Doan's 16th goal of the season at 3:07 of the extra session.

Flames defenseman Blair Jones was hit by a shot during the decisive power play and was unable to help kill the penalty. With essentially two Calgary defenders on the ice, Doan took a pass from Vrbata in the left faceoff circle and snapped a shot past Flames goalie Leland Irving.

"We've been scoring by committee lately, and it's important that everyone contributes," Doan said. "Vrbata gave me a real soft pass and I let it go."

► Click here to see the KEY MOMENT.

Smith

• Goalie Mike Smith set a career-high by playing in his 43rd game of the season. "He made key saves at the right times," Coyotes Head Coach Dave Tippett said.

• The Coyotes have beaten the Calgary Flames five times in a row overall and five times in a row at Jobing.com Arena.

• Center Martin Hanzal led the team in shots on goal (five), hits (eight) and faceoff success (11 for 17).

• The Coyotes upped their record to 22-4-5 in the 31 games in which they've scored first this season.

• The Coyotes scratched Paul Bissonnette and Chris Summers.

• The Coyotes' next game is Saturday vs. the Chicago Blackhawks at Jobing.com Arena. The puck drops at 6:30 p.m. (Arizona time). The game can be seen on Fox Sports Arizona Plus and can be heard on XTRA Sports 910 (AM).

"You don't want to give Calgary one point because they're going to be right there at the end with you, but at the same time it's big to find a way to get that extra (point) and find a way to get some momentum and keep the momentum." "I feel pretty comfortable on that line with Kyle (Chipchura) and Gilbert (Brule) in the games as of late. We just want to contribute as much as we can. It feels good to get on the score sheet." "We really needed that extra point tonight. We needed it as bad as we couldn’t give it to them. It’s unfortunate to come away with one (point) here. It was a quality effort by a lot of guys." Doan Pyatt Irving