On Saturday night, the Calgary Flames headed to Winnipeg to face the Jets.

On paper, this was a game that had all the makings of a loss for the visitors. They were playing their fourth and final game of their road swing, one that began on Sunday and is followed by four days between games – 60 minutes between you and (a) your own bed and (b) the last significant schedule gap for awhile can be a big distraction. Add in the fact that the Jets are a damn good hockey team with one of the best home records in the NHL, and you could easily imagine the Flames having a tough go of it.

However, on Saturday night in Winnipeg, as we’ve seen several times this season, the Flames’ kids played a big role in earning two big points. Here are five key moments from the Flames’ 3-1 victory over the Jets.

We wouldn’t call Matt Coronato “automatic,” but he’s a player that has a lot of confidence in himself and his abilities these days. If you’ve watched the moments preceding Coronato’s recent goals, you can probably see him try to find some quiet ice behind the defenders and try to create a lane for a pass from his linemates.

On Saturday, Coronato found a spot a bit more towards the point than he usually does – he’s usually a one-timer from the goalie’s right side kind of shooter – but he received a pass from Blake Coleman and fired a quick shot that beat Eric Comrie below the bar.

“It’s the quick release,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska, via Flames TV. “You know, he works to get to his spots in a hurry and he has a real quick release. And again, it was very similar to the goal he scored at home a few games back, that it’s on and off his stick right away before the goalie’s really expecting it.”

Coronato’s marker was his 11th of the season. He’s on pace to score 20 this year, and potentially earn a performance bonus if he does. The Flames were destined to be in a lot of low-scoring, tight games this season, and they were probably destined to be low in the standings if they couldn’t find players that could score key goals or prevent key goals: Coronato’s scored key goals.

On paper, the key match-up in this game was the Jets’ top-ranked power play against the Flames’ 30th-ranked penalty kill. The Flames probably hoped to maintain their discipline, minimize their time in the box, and minimize the damage that a power play that scores on a third of their advantages could do.

With Nazem Kadri in the box for two minutes, the Jets fired three shots on Dustin Wolf and were credited by Natural Stat Trick with three high-danger scoring chances. The Flames managed to win the second face-off of the kill and avoid Wolf being tested further.

Up until this season, it was natural to be skeptical of what Rory Kerins’ NHL potential was. After all, his first two professional seasons were pretty uneven. Well, he’s been strong in the AHL this season and his really composed play has translated pretty nicely to the NHL so far.

On Saturday, in his fourth NHL game, he was part of a pretty slick play that led to the Flames’ second goal. Kerins and Coleman led a zone entry on a Flames’ power play, where they got the puck into the zone, passed it over to Andrei Kuzmenko, and then did their best to pile up bodies in front of Winnipeg’s net, with Kerins and Mikael Backlund providing some traffic.

The chaos led to Kuzmenko’s second goal of the season, and first since Oct. 15. It stood as the game-winner.

It’s natural to ask “When will the NHL start to figure out Dustin Wolf?” And our argument is that there’s already a book on him based on his NHL and AHL experience to date. If you want to beat Wolf, you need to get him moving laterally, screen him, or get deflections – and it helps if you do two or three of those things at once.

The Jets got their lone goal of the game on a nice deflection play with traffic, as Adam Lowry tipped Colin Miller’s point shot. early in the third period.

The Jets had a ton of momentum in the third period. They seemed poised to tie the game when Kadri was called for tripping, giving Winnipeg their second man advantage of the game.

Instead, the Flames got three big stops from Wolf and managed to prevent the Jets from generating any high-danger chances.

“They pushed in the third period,” said Huska of the Jets. “And when we needed him, our goaltender was our best player tonight.”

We mentioned earlier that the Flames were destined to play low-scoring, tight games and would need players that could score big goals or prevent big goals. Coronato’s established himself as someone that can score big goals, but Wolf has been massive for the Flames this season for his ability to make the saves they need at the time they need. When the other side is gaining momentum, Wolf has a knack for deflating things for them. And that knack has made him probably the club’s most valuable player.

He definitely was in the Flames’ win over Winnipeg.

The Flames returned to action on Thursday night at home against Buffalo.