Game Recap: Wild 5, Flames 2

CALGARY, AB -- The Minnesota Wild (9-10-4) earned its fourth victory in a row after defeating the Calgary Flames (10-12-3) 5-2 on Tuesday night at Scotiabank Saddledome. G Filip Gustavsson made 28-of-30 saves in the win.

F Marcus Foligno kicked off scoring in the contest, striking first at 1:26 of the first period on a quick in-and-out shot. The puck clanged off the post, then the top, back pipe then out. The play wasn't whistled dead right away, however. Nearly a minute later the horn sounded, play was stopped and the goal was awarded after review.

The goal was his third of the season and he was assisted by F Matt Boldy on the play. Wild led 1-0.

At 16:20, D Brock Faber was called for slashing F Elias Lindholm. At 16:51 F Yegor Sharangovich was called for tripping F Joel Eriksson Ek. A subsequent four-on-four ensued but the score remained 1-0.

At the conclusion of the first period the Wild outshot the Flames 13-5.

In quicker fashion than the first, F Kirill Kaprizov scored to improve the Wild's lead to 2-0. His eighth goal of the season came at 00:45. He was assisted on the play by F Marco Rossi and F Mats Zuccarello.

With his assist, Zuccarello pushed his point streak to 10 games, tied for the longest of his career and recorded his 600th NHL point. He became the first Norwegian-born player in NHL history to reach the landmark. He also pushed his assist streak to eight games, the second longest active streak in the NHL and the longest of Zuccarello's career.

With Rossi's assist on the goal, he now has recorded eight points in his last nine games (3-5=8) and is currently ranked second among NHL rookies in points.

Shortly after Kaprizov's goal, Boldy recorded his first goal and second point of the night at 1:30, 3-0 lead for Minnesota. It was his second multi-point game of the season and he now has three goals in his last four games.

Calgary then replaced G Dan Vladar with AHL call-up G Dustin Wolf. Wolf was called up from the Calgary Wranglers earlier today after G Jacob Markstrom was injured (upper body) in practice on Monday.

At 2:25 Foligno and F A.J. Greer dropped the gloves and served five minutes for fighting.

The Flames got on the board at 6:49 with a goal from their captain F Mikael Backlund. He was assisted by D Mackenzie Weegar and D Rasmus Andersson. 3-1 Wild lead.

At 7:18 F Blake Coleman was called for cross-checking Rossi. The Wild was unsuccessful on the following power play.

Rossi then drew his second penalty of the night after being slashed by Andersson.

The Wild capitalized on the power play with Boldy's second goal of the night, his first PPG, a tip-in from Kaprizov at 13:57 for a 4-1 Wild lead. Captain D Jared Spurgeon also recorded an assist on the play, his fourth in as many games.

With the assist, Kaprizov recorded his second point of the night (1-1=2) and his 69th career multi-point game, tying Pierre-Marc Bouchard for fifth-most in franchise history.

For sending the puck over the glass in his own end, D Jake Middleton served a two minute delay of game penalty at 15:34. 

At the end of period two, the Wild outshot the Flames 24 to 15.

Calgary's F Connor Zary cut Minnesota's lead in half at 1:36 of the third. He was assisted by D Ilya Solovyov and F Nazem Kadri.

F Marcus Johansson tripped Andersson at 3:09 for the Flames' third scoreless power play of the night.

Eriksson Ek made it a 5-2 game at 6:48, scoring his 12th goal of the season. Assisted by Johansson, Eriksson Ek has now scored four goals in his last six games.

Zary and Rossi were each called for penalties at 9:34 with the calls being holding and interference, respectively. Neither team scored on the four-on-four that followed.

The Flames ended the contest outshooting the Wild 30-29. The Wild's power play went 1/3 and held the Flames's PP to 0/3.

In six starts since November 18, Gustavsson is 3-2-1 with a 1.82 GAA and a .931 SV%. During that span he ranks fourth among NHL goalies in GAA and tied for third in SV%.

What Else?

• According to NHL Stats, John Hynes is now the second head coach to start his tenure with the Wild with a win streak of four or more games, joining John Torchetti (4-0-0 from Feb. 15-21, 2016)
• Since November 28, Boldy is tied for third in the NHL with four goals scored.
• Boldy (currently 22 years, eight months old) notches the ninth multi-goal game of his career. Only Marian Gaborik has recorded more multi-goal games for the Wild before turning 23 years old, doing so 14 times.
• Zuccarello's eight-game assist streak has tied Jim Dowd (8 GP in 2001-02) for the second longest in franchise history behind Kirill Kaprizov (9 GP in 2022-23).
• Faber led the Wild with 25:42 time on ice, averaging 00:46 on 33 shifts.

What'd They Say?

"Once you're able to kinda get one and get that relief and drop the shoulders a little bit and play with that confidence it goes a long way." - Boldy on picking up on scoring

"We got off the tracks a little and we got it back on. We still have a mountain to climb but there's a lot of guys that don't quit in this room." - Foligno on the team playing better lately

"When we play like that we're hard to play against. It's just fun to play when everyone's in it and everyone contributes." - Zuccarello on scoring coming from the whole team

"They were ready to play the game. We were fast, we were tenacious, we're sticking to the identity we want to play with. It's enjoyable to coach and I give the players a lot of credit." - Hynes on the success of the team since his arrival

What's Next?

The Wild travels to Vancouver next to take on the Canucks (16-9-1) on Thursaday at Rogers Arena as the first of back-to-back games with Edmonton following on Friday night.