CALGARY, Alberta — One of the many often-repeated truisms of hockey says that trying to end another team’s season is among the hardest games you will play.

With a chance to clinch a playoff spot and put the Calgary Flames on the brink of elimination, the Minnesota Wild found that task harder than they could manage on Friday.

Just 48 hours after they had posted a season-best eight goals in a home win over San Jose, the Wild’s offense ran dry in Alberta as Calgary led from start to finish, winning 4-2 and ensuring that Minnesota’s postseason plans will have to wait.

Minnesota Wild’s Frederick Gaudreau (89) checks Calgary Flames’ Brayden Pachal (94) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Calgary, Alberta, Friday, April 11, 2025. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

Dustin Wolf, the lanky northern California kid who has been Calgary’s mainstay as a rookie goalie, needed to stop just 16 shots to grab the two points that pulled the Flames within three of Minnesota in the Western Conference standings. Calgary has a game in hand, as well.

Yakov Trenin spoiled the Calgary shutout with 4:21 left in a game that was already decided, and Minnesota got an extra-attacker goal from Gustav Nyquist but could not close the gap.

Wild coach John Hynes said this is two games in a row where the team has not played to its identity.

“San Jose game was a little bit of a pond hockey game for us, and then tonight we were the second most competitive team on the ice. So, that’s not really who we are and what we’ve been, but we’ve got to make sure that that’s gonna be different tomorrow night,” he said, referencing the looming road game at Vancouver.

With two regular-season games remaining, the Wild still control their own playoff destiny but are now at significant risk of an eighth-place finish, which would mean a playoff visit to conference-leading Winnipeg starting next week.

Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson had 25 saves for the Wild before giving way to Marc-Andre Fleury with 12:40 to play. Gustavsson will start Saturday’s game in Vancouver, with Minnesota in even more desperate need of points. And in an all-too-familiar story this season, the Wild lost another player of note to injury as captain Jared Spurgeon missed most of the second period, returned for a few shifts in the third, then left the game before the final horn.

Calgary, which won all three of its games versus the Wild this season, got a pair of second-period goals to break open a tight game, and has two of its remaining three games at home.

After the Wild survived a few early scares, Calgary broke through after Gustavsson stopped a long-range shot. Mikael Backlund flipped the rebound over the goalie’s blocker, giving the Flames a 1-0 lead at the end of the first period.

Spurgeon was injured on his opening shift of the second, and then things got worse for the visitors when Yegor Sharangovich deflected a puck past Gustavsson on the stick side for a 2-0 Flames lead. The deficit grew to three when Calgary scored on the game’s first power play.

“There’s just times (that we have to) play simple and we don’t do it, and it bites us. We didn’t generate a lot of shots to the net. We passed up things in the second where maybe we could have found momentum,” veteran wing Marcus Foligno said. “That’s the thing, I think sometimes we kill ourselves on momentum. There’s a time in the game where you can turn it around, (and) we choose a harder play, or not thinking quicker, and tonight it bit us.”

Minnesota’s best chance to chip away came late in the second when Calgary was called for consecutive penalties, giving the Wild nearly 4 straight minutes of man advantage. But they managed just two shots on Wolf in that span and headed to the second intermission still down by three. The Wild had shots by Vinnie Hinostroza and Joel Eriksson Ek strike posts in the period, but both slid harmlessly away.

The Wild pressured Wolf to start the third, but a fumbled puck at the blue line led to a Calgary breakaway which made it 4-0 and prompted the goalie change. Trenin got a late breakaway goal past Wolf. Fleury, in what could be his final NHL regular-season appearance, stopped the three shots he faced.

Calgary, which came into the game leading the NHL with a whopping 14 losses either in overtime or in a shootout, still clings to hope of making the playoffs, but the Flames cannot help but lament all of those potential points missed in the regular season’s first 79 games.

“The game in November is just as important, to make sure we finish, as it is now. We’ve got zero runway left now,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said before the game. “You want them to learn to prepare and treat every game as the most important of the year. You go into the year wanting to play playoff hockey, not wanting to play (crucial) games at this time of year.”

Hynes said he was unsure of the status of Spurgeon, who appeared to get hit in the throat by a puck, for Saturday’s game. Spurgeon leaned on Sharangovich during a stoppage of play before making his way to the bench early in the second.

“It was sort of serious. I was not understanding what he was saying to me. I thinks it’s my English. He just catched me,” Sharangovich said. “I feel bad because I should help him. He (held) me and the referee helped him after. After, I asked what happened, and he said he lost his breath.”

Minnesota played a third consecutive game without defenseman Jake Middleton, who is on the road trip but has not returned to the lineup since going headfirst into the end boards in a road loss to the New York Islanders a week ago. Hynes said Middleton is a possibility to return for the Vancouver game.

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Police in South St. Paul are investigating a fatal shooting that occurred Friday night.

According to police, officers responded to an 8:50 p.m. call about a shooting in a residence in the 700 block of 12th Avenue North. Officers arriving at the scene found a man with an apparent gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene by medics.

A 36-year-old man from Hudson, Wis., was arrested at the scene in connection with the shooting. Police said the victim and suspect were known to each other and that there is no ongoing threat to public safety.

South St. Paul police were being assisted by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Investigation in collecting evidence and determining the circumstances of the shooting. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office was also investigating and will positively identify the victim.

Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to contact South St. Paul police at 651-413-8300.

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Rudy Gobert does much of the grunt work for Minnesota, defending the paint, setting screens and grabbing boards.

Friday night provided a rare time to heavily feature the center’s offense.

Brooklyn was down nearly all of its regular rotational players as it made a point to eat another loss and secure its draft positioning. The lineup the Nets trotted out for Friday’s contest at Target Center was particularly small. Which meant the Wolves’ 7-footer could do effectively whatever he wanted without much resistance.

And he did just that.

Gobert tied a career high with 35 points to go with 11 rebounds as Minnesota trounced Brooklyn, 117-91.

“It felt great,” Gobert said in his postgame, on-court interview. “Obviously, we all knew what the opponent was giving us, so just tried to do a good job setting the tone. My teammates did a great job looking for me, finding me, and I just had to finish at the rim.”

The Wolves host the tanking Utah Jazz on Sunday, needing just a win to secure at top-six seed in the Western Conference playoffs and avoid the play-in tournament.

Minnesota may be without Anthony Edwards in that game. The guard picked up his 18th technical foul of the season in the second quarter on Friday, and if that’s not rescinded by the NBA, Edwards will be suspended for the bout with Utah.

“I did not really get a good or clear explanation,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said of the tech. “It didn’t seem like there was any egregious or overly demonstrative (action) or anything like that.”

In a pool report, NBA official Bill Kennedy said Edwards received the tech “for use of profanity directed toward an official.”

Either way, the Wolves would still have Gobert. That’s about all they’ve needed of late as they’ve continued to handle business against the NBA’s cellar dwellers. Gobert is simply too big, strong and relentless for undermanned rosters to contain. His efforts on the glass and defending of the paint prevent hefty underdogs from generating any momentum, or hope.

Such was the case Friday. It was all Minnesota after Brooklyn got off to a quick start over the game’s first couple of minutes. The Wolves led by as many as 28 points in the game.

By the final frame, Minnesota was making a concerted effort to reward its big man with as many touches as possible, whether they came from lobs or simple interior feeds. Gobert continued to capitalize. He went 13 for 17 from the field.

“He did a really good job of catching and finishing and being strong in there and making the right play when the time presented itself, too,” Finch said.

Julius Randle, another beneficiary of Brooklyn’s lack of size, added 21 points on 8 for 11 shooting.

Gobert tied his career high in the closing minutes. And there were a few more possessions in which he could’ve set a new career mark.

The crowd chanted “Rudy” one possession after another, but Timberwolves coach Chris Finch cleared the Wolves’ bench with fewer than four minutes to play and the win well in hand.

Minnesota took care of business Friday. If it does so one more time Sunday, it will lock up its fourth consecutive playoff appearance.

“I think just stay locked in, keep doing everything we do to prepare mentally and physically,” Gobert said. “Just be ourselves and we’ll be fine.”

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Riley Greene fought through an eight-pitch plate appearance against Jorge Alcala before finally being awarded first base. Spencer Torkelson saw 11 more pitches — two which he almost took out of the ballpark on long foul balls — before he, too, drew a walk and wound up on first base.

Those two walks set the stage for a big sixth inning for the Detroit Tigers, one in which they erased the Twins’ three-run lead and grabbed ahold of one of their own for good in Friday night’s 7-6 win over Minnesota in the series opener at Target Field.

A softly hit groundball — it was tapped at just 38.7 miles per hour — preceded Zach McKinstry’s two-run single, a hit which sliced the Twins’ lead to just one and spelled the end of Alcala’s night.

Alcala made way for Justin Topa, who allowed a game-tying single. Another run scored on Trey Sweeney’s groundout, giving the Tigers the lead before Topa could extract the Twins from the mess.

All told, it was a four-run inning, one that completely wiped out the three-run lead the Twins had scrapped for an inning prior.

Byron Buxton, back after a two-day absence because of a personal matter, was in the middle of it all for the Twins’ offense, scoring their first run in the second inning after a walk and a stolen base. Another run scored in the fifth on Buxton’s groundout, and he scored later that inning on a mad dash home. Buxton would also hit a home run.

Ty France also drove in a pair of runs as part of a three-hit day for him, and Edouard Julien also collected three hits. But their efforts weren’t enough on a night when the bullpen gave up six runs and the defense made a pair of errors that led to two unearned runs.

The first came in the fifth inning, spelling the end of David Festa’s start. Festa, called up from Triple-A on Friday, turned in a promising performance, one of the positives for the Twins on Friday night.

The right-hander pitched around a bases-loaded situation in the third inning and had held the Tigers scoreless heading into the fifth inning. It would have remained that way had Matt Wallner’s throw back to third base not ended up in the dugout, allowing Dillon Dingler, the runner he was attempting to throw out, to score. That play tied the game.

Festa took a no-decision in the loss, one that dropped the Twins to 4-10 on the season and was their fifth in their past six games.

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