Since entering the NHL as an expansion team in 2000, the Minnesota Wild have played 17 playoff series of varying lengths, none beyond the third round and only three beyond the first. Surprisingly, none of them have been against the Calgary Flames, an old rival from the days of the Northwest Division.

To say Friday night’s Wild game in Calgary will have a playoff-type atmosphere is one way of looking at things. But the way the standings and remaining games are shaking out, it will, in fact, be like Game 4 of a best-of-seven playoff series that the Wild already lead 3-0.

Minnesota has three games remaining, Calgary four. The Wild (43-29-7) have a five-point lead on the Flames (37-27-14) for the final Western Conference playoff spot, meaning that a Wild win — in regulation, overtime or a shootout — would effectively knock Calgary out of the race for the postseason.

It also would clinch Minnesota’s first playoff berth under coach John Hynes.

The Wild are 0-1-1 against Calgary this season. They suffered a 4-3 shootout loss at the Saddledome in November and a 5-4 home loss on Hockey Day Minnesota in January.

With Calgary fighting to extend its season, and the Wild fighting to put the regular season drama behind them, Hynes expects a battle in Alberta.“I think it’s going to be a highly competitive environment. It’s two teams that are in a heated playoff race,” he said after the Wild’s 8-7 win over San Jose in overtime on Wednesday. “So I think that lends itself to high intensity, not a lot of time and space, just I think a real battle in every sense of the word. I think the competitive nature of the game is going to be very high.

“I think the attention to detail and the mindset needs to be at a high level. I think both teams are probably going to bring it. It’s going to be a hard playoff style, playoff race right down to the end type of game.”

The narrative for the Wild this season has been driven by player health. The Wild roster Calgary saw in November was among the best in the NHL, best in the league on the road. The team Calgary saw in January was on the front end of roughly two months of offensive struggles that made the Wild vulnerable to late pushes from teams such as Calgary and St. Louis.

On Wednesday, the boisterous crowd inside Xcel Energy Center got a glimpse of that November team, with sure-fire sources of offense available for Hynes. In their return to the lineup, forwards Joel Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov combined for six of the team’s eight goals.

What happens on the rink in Calgary on Friday might be indicative of whether that sweet music from before the New Year can be re-created now that the Wild have the band back together.

“That’s where we want to be, that’s where we believe we can be. … We’re getting healthy, you know, slowly but surely,” Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said after his win over the Sharks gave him 70 career overtime victories — tops in NHL history.

“If tonight can be a little bit of a show of what we can do, I think if we keep our grinding attitude from the last couple months and adding a little bit of offense here and there from these guys, I think we’ll be interesting.”

On Wednesday, Hynes said the revitalized Wild don’t want to be that NHL-leading team from last Thanksgiving. They want to be even better.

“I don’t think that it’s trying to get back to a team that we were, or whatever it is,” he said. “I think that it’s making sure that we’re a really good hockey team. Focused, we’re dialed in. We’re at the competitive level we need to to ice the game that should give us the best chance to win in the next game. And that’s all our focus is.”

Hynes sounded ready to lead two dozen players into the playoffs, even if it feels like they’re starting a week early, on a Friday night not far from the Canadian Rockies.