5 Things - Flames @ Jets

1. About Last Night

It was Hockey Day in St. Paul.

It’s there, outside the Xcel Energy Center, where an iconic, 11-foot statue of Minnesota native Herb Brooks stands proudly in the plaza and reminds visitors of the 1980 ‘Miracle on Ice.’

With the city’s rich hockey history in mind, why not get up close and personal, and treat the locals to an edge-of-your-seat, playoff-style thriller?

It was feisty, physical, and more of a nail-biter than the Flames would’ve liked down the stretch, but everyone – all 18 skaters – brought something positive and impacted the game as the visitors knocked off the Wild 5-4 to open a two-game road swing.

Andrei Kuzmenko paced the Flames offensively, bookending the scoring his third and fourth goals of the season and chipping in an assist. Martin Pospisil (1G, 1A) and Yegor Sharangovich (2A) also had multi-point efforts, while Rasmus Andersson and the recently recalled Clark Bishop rounded out the scoring.

Bishop’s goal was his first since Dec. 7, 2018, when he was a member of the Carolina Hurricanes.

Dustin Wolf, meanwhile, stopped 21 to improve to 18-7-2.

“I liked our game, probably for 58 minutes of it,” said Head Coach Ryan Huska. “We did a lot of good things on the road, in a tough place to play. The last couple minutes, they got a little hairy, but they’re small little plays that often are the difference in the game. Even late, Jakob Pelletier’s effort on that potential icing at the end there, that’s the difference.”

The Flames held leads of 4-1 and 5-2 before the Wild trimmed the deficit with a pair of late strikes.

Unfortunately for the Flames, it wasn’t all good news on this night. Defensive stalwart Kevin Bahl left the game in the second period after being crunched from behind by Minnesota forward Jakub Lauko. The hit was initially ruled a boarding major, but was later reduced to a minor after a brief review.

Bahl did not return to the game and there was no update on his condition afterward.

“I thought our whole team was (engaged). It had that type of energy to the game, where it was physical, and it seemed like there was a little more of a rivalry between the two teams than you would expect. But I thought the guys on the backend did a good job. You lose a defenceman early like that, in the second period, that’s a lot of extra minutes to move around, and I thought they handled it very well."

Tonight, the Flames look to sweep their back-to-back road set as they visit Winnipeg for the second time in eight days.

Last Saturday, they knocked off their Canadian counterparts 3-1 thanks to goals from Matt Coronato, Kuzmenko and Blake Coleman, and a stellar, 38-save outing from Wolf.

2. Know Your Enemy

The slump had reached a maddening 14 straight.

So, when Cole Perfetti shrugged the monkey off his back with the icebreaker in Thursday’s tilt with Utah, he and the 15,000-plus at Canada Life Centre let out a collective sigh of relief.

But then there was another.

And another.

Suddenly, Perfetti was the hottest Jet in the Manitoba capital, leading his team to a 5-2 win on the strength of his first-career hat-trick.

“I feel, obviously the production might not be there in the sense of the stat sheet and stuff like that, but I feel like I’m really starting to play really good hockey all over the ice,” Perfetti told Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press after the morning skate that day.

“That’s what I’m trying to focus on, being harder on the puck, harder on the walls, kind of being a little prick to play against, not being fun to play against.

“Be annoying, reliable in all zones. Eventually the production is going to come, the offensive side of it will come. How can I affect the game if I’m not scoring or if I’m not getting production? And if I’m able to still look myself in the mirror and say I contributed to this win, that’s a successful game.”

In this league, the results won’t come without a solid foundation – and Perfetti was clearly putting in the work behind the scenes to ensure he was helping feed the machine.

But offensive players are almost exclusively judged by the scoring charts.

And Thursday’s impeccable three-goal outing could do wonders for the kid’s confidence.

“You guys (in the media) got him all mad this morning,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel.

“He’s one year older, he’s learned from things that have happened in the past. He gets frustrated, but he doesn’t get down and let it drag into the rest of his game.”

Clearly.

Perfetti finished the night with eight shot attempts while dishing out a team-high three hits.

His efforts – along with a goal and two helpers from Nikolaj Ehlers, and 17 stops from Connor Hellebuyck – helped the Jets (33-14-3) win their second straight, after dropping last Saturday’s Hockey Day in Canada contest to the Flames, followed by a 5-2 setback in Utah this past Monday.

Winnipeg sits atop both the Central and Western Conference standings with 69 points – four up on the Pacific-leading Edmonton Oilers, who earned a 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.

3. Fast Facts

Howl-y Smokes!

Dustin Wolf has improved his career record to 26-14-3, tying Tom Barrasso for the ninth-most wins by an American rookie goaltender. John Gibson (t-2nd: 37), Alex Nedeljkovic (t-2nd: 37) and Jeremy Swayman (8th; 30) are the only active goaltenders among that list that sit higher. In doing so, Wolf also moves within one victory of tying Dan Vladar (27) for the second most by a Flames rookie goaltender. Mike Vernon tops the list with 39.

Climbing The Charts

With his goal last night in Minnesota, Rasmus Andersson recorded his 43rd career tally, passing Dougie Hamilton and Noah Hanifin for the ninth-most by a defenceman in franchise history. Andersson already ranks as the highest-scoring Swedish-born rearguard in Flames history. His 502 games puts him only 15 away from tying Paul Reinhart (517) for the seventh-most in Flames history.

Did You Know?

With Andrei Kuzmenko scoring to give the Flames a 1-0 lead last night in Minnesota, Calgary has scored first 27 times this season. Only Columbus (31), Buffalo (30) and Minnesota (29) have done so more.

Stick tap to Flames PR guru Jordan Bay for compiling these nuggets.

4. Lineup Notes

Here’s how the Flames deployed their forward line combinations and D pairs last night in Minnesota:

Forwards

Jonathan Huberdeau - Nazem Kadri - Jakob Pelletier
Blake Coleman - Mikael Backlund - Matt Coronato
Ryan Lomberg - Yegor Sharangovich - Martin Pospisil
Clark Bishop - Kevin Rooney - Andrei Kuzmenko

Defence

Kevin Bahl - Rasmus Andersson
MacKenzie Weegar - Daniil Miromanov
Joel Hanley - Brayden Pachal

Goaltender

Dustin Wolf

Fresh legs are a must on Night 2 of a back-to-back – and Huska has often made tweaks to his lineup because of this in the five previous opportunities – so we’ll see either if Jake Bean or Rory Kerins (or both) draw back into the lineup tonight.

If Bahl is unable to play, that may necessitate the move on the backend, anyway.

If so, the Flames would not have any other spare bodies on defence – pending a recall – after assigning veteran Tyson Barrie to the Calgary Wranglers on a conditioning loan this past Friday.

5. Players to Watch

Flames - Rasmus Andersson

At one point in Saturday’s broadcast, Sportsnet Host Ryan Leslie quipped that Andersson "had done everything but sell the popcorn.”

Yes, he was that good.

The 28-year-old workhorse – who was pressed into an even bigger role with the loss of his partner, Bahl – enjoyed one of his finest outings of the campaign, logging 24-and-a-half minutes and drawing the ire of the Minnesota faithful with a stiff left to the chin of Marc-Andre Fleury during a fracas in the goal crease.

Andersson twice found himself in the sin bin, serving four minutes worth of off-setting roughing minors, but lived rent-free in the minds of the Wild for the full 60.

All this, before stepping into a clapper from the faceoff circle to put the Flames up by two with only eight seconds left in the middle frame.

A dagger, you might say, before staring them to the unsuspecting fans in the front row only seconds later.

Jets - Nikolaj Ehlers

From fighting off an illness and being a game-time decision, to bagging points No. 498, 499 and 500 of his NHL career.

What a story this’ll be for the grandkids one day.

"You don't want to know how I woke up this morning," Ehlers told the media following Thursday’s win over Utah. “Obviously not the greatest day, health-wise, for an NHL game. But you know what, I felt better throughout the day and I feel good now, so I’m glad I could be out there. I’ve played feeling much worse than that.”

“(Five-hundred points) is special. But what’s the most special is doing it here at home.”

The speedy winger is now up to 42 points (15G, 28A) in 41 games this season – a pace that would have him smash his previous career high of 64, and put him north of a point-per-game for the first time in his 10 years on tour.