Post-Game: wild and young

The Minnesota Wild are a really good hockey club. Sure, they played last night in Edmonton, but the Calgary Flames have been beaten by teams on back-to-backs before. But tonight, the Flames did what they haven’t done a lot of over the last little stretch: they battled and they got good goaltending when they needed it.

Let’s be honest here: the Wild know they’re going to the playoffs. They played last night. But the Flames played a hungry game and never trailed during this contest. The Flames began their stretch drive with a strong performance in a 5-1 victory over Minnesota.

The Flames were a bit slow out of the gates in the first, seemingly needing to get their legs back after a six day gap between games. However, they eventually found their moxie and opened the scoring five minutes in. T.J. Brodie held in an attempted Minnesota clear at the blueline, then some rapid-fire passes led to a Sam Bennett shot bonking off Alex Chiasson’s leg and past Devan Dubnyk to make it a 1-0 hockey game.

Calgary improbably bumped their lead to two goals when the lesser of their two power play units, the one with all the expensive players, scored a goal. It was a dandy play, too. Johnny Gaudreau headed into the Minnesota zone with speed and dished a pass to Troy Brouwer at the blueline, then continued in his lane straight towards the net. Brouwer slap-passed the puck into that lane and Gaudreau forced Dubnyk to make a nice save with a redirection. The rebound went right to Sean Monahan, who buried it to make it 2-0.

Shots were 13-9 Minnesota and the Wild had a few nice chances on a late power play, but Brian Elliott was rock solid.

The Flames were superb in the first half of the second period and then significantly less so in the second half. They were buzzing and created several chances that they just couldn’t bury. The period turned on a mid-period power play caused by a Nino Niederreiter penalty. The Flames generated very little and Minnesota actually scored a goal that was called back due to goalie interference. But a few minutes after the penalty expired, they scored on a two-on-one caused by Dennis Wideman falling over and failing to get back into the play. That allowed Jason Zucker the space for a nice redirection of a Mikael Granlund slap-pass to the net front that made it 2-1.

The game got chippy late in the period, with a few scrums and exchanges of pleasantries after whistles. Shots were 16-10 Flames in the second.

After a bit of back-and-forth hockey to open the third, the Flames got the ever-important “next goal” six minutes into the third on the power play. It was a simple play: Monahan won the face-off, their PP unit cycled the puck and Monahan scored with Brouwer screening Dubnyk to make it 3-1.

Just over a minute later, Deryk Engelland scored off another simple play: Matt Stajan drew the puck back to the point off an offensive zone face-off and Engelland’s shot beat Dubnyk through traffic. The Wild were a non-factor from that point onwards. Micheal Ferland scored a goal later in the third on a nice two-on-one breakout with Lance Bouma – Ferland opted to shoot instead of pass – to make it 5-1 and ice things.

Shots were 11-6 Flames in the final period. (Score effects? What score effects?)

It sounds like a cliche, but the Flames were overall better than the Wild.

The Flames best players were their best players, with the Gaudreau-Monahan-Brouwer trio looking consistently strong and consistently out-performing the best Wild players. Calgary’s goalie was also better than Minnesota’s goalie and when that happens, your team has a shot to win most nights.

Let’s go with Elliott, who got his 10th win of the season and made 28 saves. He was full marks, especially during a first period when the Wild were buzzing at times and the Flames needed some time to find their legs.

The second Monahan power play goal, coming off a nice simple cycle play, made it 3-1 and took the wind out of Minnesota’s sails.

Every single Flames skater dressed tonight registered at least one shot on goal.

With the victory, the Flames swept their season series with Minnesota (with two regulation wins and a shootout win). By sheer coincidence, the Wild are Calgary’s most likely playoff opponent (should they qualify for the post-season) per our friends at Sports Club Stats.

“I thought Ells made some big saves early. Our first game after a break, their second, they still had some pop left in the first, but then our power play certainly helped us and I thought our penalty kill was good.” – Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan on the keys to Calgary’s victory.

“We just played a good solid game. I think we used all the ice… They’re a fast team that plays good defensively and we used a lot of zone time as our best defense. The guys really bought into that tonight, first period on. Spotting two goals in the first period, that’s huge and that’s how we want to come out.” – Flames goaltender Brian Elliott on his team’s performance.

The Flames (26-24-3) jet out tomorrow to kick off another three game road trip. They’re back in action on Friday night in scenic Newark, New Jersey when they visit the Devils. They’re back at home again next Monday (February 13) when they host the Arizona Coyotes.