Missed opportunities early and missed assignments late turned out to be a bad combination for the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night.
A trio of third-period goals by Calgary broke open a tie game, as the Flames skated to a 4-1 win and handed the Wild their first regulation loss in nearly a month.
Yakov Trenin scored the only goal for Minnesota, which had previously claimed at least a point in a dozen consecutive games. While things fell apart in the final 20 minutes, the game may have been lost early, as Minnesota was 0 for 4 on the power play in the first period, missing repeated chances to grab a critical lead on the road.
“I thought we got out-played tonight,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “It was the first time in a while I’ve seen us get out-competed, get out-skated, get out-executed. It wasn’t a good night for us.”
Filip Gustavsson finished with 26 saves, falling to 7-8-3 as Minnesota’s goalie of record this season. He went to the bench with more than three minutes remaining in the third in favor of an extra attacker, but the effort fell short as Calgary hit the empty net with just under a minute to play.
Since a 4-3 loss in Carolina on Nov. 6, the Wild had gone 10-0-2 prior to Thursday.
Calgary, which is the Western Conference’s most-penalized team thus far this season, upheld that reputation in the first period. The Flames spent eight of the opening 20 minutes playing short-handed, which allowed the Wild to enjoy decided advantages in shots and in possession time but not on the scoreboard, as the Calgary penalty kill was perfect.
The Flames’ penalty kill has been among the NHL’s best this season. They did admirable work disrupting the Wild offense, and goalie Dustin Wolf did the rest, with 11 first period saves.
“You’ve got to be ready to go, and tonight we weren’t,” Hynes said. “And that’s what happens. In this league, every night it’s a hard night. And tonight, for whatever reason…no excuses for it tonight, that’s for sure.”
Momentum swung, hard, to the home team in the middle frame, with the Flames taking a lead and holding the Wild without a shot on goal for nearly 14 minutes in the second. Jonathan Huberdeau got the game’s first goal, scoring from his knees after Ryan Hartman blocked the initial shot in front of Gustavsson, but the rebound proved to be dangerous.
“Obviously I don’t think we played up to our best standard, but I still think we created a bunch of chances early on,” Wild forward Mats Zuccarello said. “Second period, third period was so-so, but in the first first two we were creating those chances to lead the game…It’s disappointing to lose, but you’ve got to move on.”
The Wild did some line juggling later in the second to try and generate some offense, putting Joel Eriksson Ek at center between Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy. That trio got some needed offensive zone time and tested Wolf.
Minnesota finally forged a tie when Trenin redirected a Zach Bogosian shot late in the second. The assist was the first point of the season for Bogosian, who missed more than a month with a lower-body injury.
“They played a better long game,” Bogosian said, giving credit to the Flames. “I think they capitalized on their chances and Gus definitely made some big saves to keep us in it there right until the end.”
The third turned out to be disastrous for the Wild. Calgary scored twice in the first six minutes, both of them off defensive miscues by Minnesota, taking control of the game.
Wolf finished with 26 saves for the Flames, who will decide the winner of their season series with the Wild on Jan. 29 when they visit St. Paul. The Wild won their first meeting 2-0 at Grand Casino Arena on Nov. 9.
Minnesota’s four-game western road trip continues on Saturday night when the Wild visit Vancouver for the first time this season. The opening faceoff is at 9 p.m. CT.
Briefly
The Wild were without rookie forward Danila Yurov for a second consecutive game. He is on the road trip but is still working his way back from a lower-body injury.
“He skated today in practice,” Wild coach John Hynes said following the team’s morning skate in Calgary. “He’s going to do some extra hard skate now and see how everything feels. So, it looks like he’s imminent but not tonight.”
Yurov has three goals and four assists in his first 21 NHL games.
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