Flames rally in third, win seven-round shootout against Wild

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Mark Giordano scored his first goal in 26 games with 5:28 remaining in the third period, and the Calgary Flames rallied for a 5-4 shootout win against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Sunday.

Giordano, who hadn't scored since Nov. 5, tied it on a power play when his centering feed from the left circle went off Ryan Suter's stick and past Alex Stalock to make it 4-4.
Dillon Dube won it for the Flames, who never led in regulation, in the seventh round of the shootout.
WATCH: [All Flames vs. Wild highlights]
"It wasn't our best game by any means. I think we were grinding a bit there," Giordano said. "We were committed to winning and we had guys that battled when we needed to to get the extra point."

Johnny Gaudreau had two assists and David Rittich made 30 saves for Calgary (22-17-5), which has won two in a row.
"At the end of the day, we really have to look at this as a stepping stone for us and an important lesson," Flames coach Geoff Ward said. "We can be happy that we got the win, but we sure can't be satisfied. There's much more there. We need to continue to get better daily so that we become a lot more confident managing games.
"When you're learning how to win, and we talk about how important that is for our group coming off last season and into this one, that's an important process for us and it's something that we have to continually talk about."
Marcus Foligno scored two goals and Stalock made 33 saves for Minnesota (20-17-6), which played the second game of back-to-back. The Wild won 3-2 in overtime against the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.

Minnesota trails Calgary by three points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
"(It's) frustrating," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. "You can sit there and say, 'We got a point in back-to-back games,' and stuff like that. But when we should've had two (points) against a team we could've caught, it's very frustrating. A lot of frustrating things out there."
Kevin Fiala's power-play goal gave the Wild a 1-0 lead at 5:01 of the first period.
Milan Lucic found a loose puck and shot between Stalock's pads to tie it 1-1 at 9:32.

Foligno one-timed a pass from Joel Eriksson Ek at 10:06 to give the Wild a 2-1 lead.
Travis Hamonic tied it 2-2 with a one-timer at 15:40.
"It was a crazy game for a goalie," Rittich said. "You know, we didn't get lead and when we scored, they scored right away. They had Grade A chances, so it was kind of hard to stick with it. I mean, it was a good game by our team because we weren't out the whole time and we stick with it."
Foligno scored his second of the game on a rebound at 19:14 to give Minnesota a 3-2 lead.
Michael Stone tied it again for Calgary at 1:55 of the third period to make it 3-3.

Greenway gave the Wild a 4-3 lead less than a minute later at 2:37. It was his first goal since Dec. 12.
"We have to think about a game like this and let it motivate us," Greenway said. "We should be ready to go after them next game and once we get the lead, keep the lead and keep going for it. We did a lot of good things. A lot of guys were going really well tonight up and down the lineup. If we continue to play like that and keep pushing, we'll do a lot of good things."

They said it

"[Dube] finally did something on the ice, that was the only thing I told him. No, honestly, it was a nice breakaway by him. He's obviously a pretty good player. He's still young, he's still learning the League, so it's good for him he went in the shootout. I'm glad they put him in and he made it, so it's good for him, good for us." -- Flames goalie David Rittich on Dillon Dube's shootout winner
"For the most part, it was a good game by us. But I think we may have gotten into a little bit of a run-and-gun with them and we kind of got on our heels in the last little bit in the third. They really had not much to lose; they obviously got lifted by the power-play goal." -- Wild forward Marcus Foligno

Need to know

Gaudreau has five points (one goal, four assists) in his past three games. … Flames center Sean Monahan had a four-game point streak end. … Suter has 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) in his past 12 games. … Fiala has five points (one goal, four assists) in his past six games and nine points (three goals, six assists) in his past 11.

What's next

Flames: At the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday (8:30 p.m. ET; NBCSCH, SNW, NHL.TV)
Wild: At the Calgary Flames on Thursday (9 p.m. ET; SNF, FS-WI, FS-N+, NHL.TV)