Gustavsson makes 29 saves, Wild defeat Flames

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Filip Gustavsson made 29 saves for the Minnesota Wild in a 4-1 win against the Calgary Flames at Grand Casino Arena on Thursday.

Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and an assist, Danila Yurov, Vinnie Hinostroza and Matt Boldy each scored for the Wild (31-14-10), who have won two in a row and are 5-1-1 in their past seven games.

“The one thing I will say is that when you go through 82 games, they’re not all gonna be Picassos, right?” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “But good teams find ways to win, even when you’re not at your best. We got the goaltending when we needed it. Obviously, early in the game, or throughout the game, the penalty kill came through for us to keep the score where it was, and then we had our opportunities on the power play.

“We were able to find a way to finish. I think that is a good sign, but I think we all know it wasn’t our best tonight.”

Morgan Frost scored and Devin Cooley made 20 saves for the Flames (21-26-6), who have lost five straight (0-3-2).

“The challenge for our team is finding a way to -- we have to find a way to generate, to score first, then build off that,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. “We seem to chase games a lot. I liked a lot of what we did tonight. I thought our work ethic was good. We did a good job of limiting them until they got the power plays at the end of the game.”

Despite allowing two goals in the first period, Calgary outshot Minnesota 13-3.

Yurov made it 1-0 at 2:43 of the first period, snapping the puck off a backhanded pass from Vladimir Tarasenko down low.

Hinostroza added another to make it 2-0 Wild at 10:37. Jake Middleton sprung Hinostroza for a partial breakaway with a stretch pass in the air that Hinostroza caught and gloved down, allowing him to get a wrist shot over Cooley’s right shoulder.

"You're looking at so many things,” Hinostroza said. “Staying onside, catching the puck, and looking if their 'D' are coming at me or if I have time. Lucky enough, I was able to do that and, you know, score a goal and help the team.”

After a scoreless second period, Frost cut the deficit 2-1 at 5:49 of the third period. He put a wrist shot past Gustavsson to finish a 2-on-1 rush with Jonathan Huberdeau.

“I thought we outplayed them, we played pretty good in the first period,” Frost said. “You look at the score, it doesn't seem like it, but we probably outplayed them, so, it's tough to start behind the eight ball like that.”

Boldy extended the lead 3-1 at 17:17 on the power play, with Kaprizov feeding him in the slot for the tip-in.

Kaprizov scored into the empty net just 28 seconds later for the 4-1 final at 17:45.

“Both the Chicago game (a 4-3 shootout win on Tuesday) and today, it didn’t feel like we connected with how we wanted to play,” Gustavsson said. “We still walked away with four points and grinded it out there in the end. We’ll sleep on it and get better for the next game.”

NOTES: Kaprizov has 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) in his last seven games. … With his assist, Quinn Hughes extends his assist streak to seven games and matches the longest run by a defenseman in Minnesota Wild franchise history, tying Jared Spurgeon (seven games in 2021-22) and Ryan Suter (seven games in 2013-14).