The Calgary Flames headed to the Twin Cities on Thursday for their final road game before the three week Olympic break. The Flames out-shot the Minnesota Wild fairly handily, but the Wild were equal parts opportunistic and patient with their offence.

The Flames lost to Minnesota by a 4-1 score to run their winless streak to five games (0-3-2).

The Wild opened the scoring on their very first shot, 2:43 into the first period. Morgan Frost’s line got hemmed into their own end a bit and they just couldn’t clear out loose pucks. Eventually, a nice bit of passing led to a great scoring chance for Danila Yakov, who fired the puck past Devin Cooley to make it 1-0 Wild.

The Wild doubled their lead on their third shot, 10:37 into the first period. On the sequence, Jacob Middleton made a great diagonal pass across the entire neutral zone, sending Vinnie Hinostroza all alone in against Cooley. Hinostroza beat Cooley inside the post to give the home side a 2-0 lead.

The Flames had two power plays later in the first period, but could not capitalize.

First period shots were 13-3 Flames. Via Natural Stat Trick, 5v5 scoring chances were 7-3 Flames and high-danger scoring chances were 1-0 Flames.

Nobody scored in the second period. It was kind of a blah 20 minutes of ice hockey, though both teams did get a few decent chances here and there.

Second period shots were 8-5 Flames. 5v5 scoring chances were 11-5 Flames and high-danger chances were 4-1 Flames.

The Flames finally solved Filip Gustavsson 5:49 into the third period. On a nice transition play, Jonathan Huberdeau fed the puck to Morgan Frost and he and Matvei Gridin went in on an odd-man rush. Frost called his own number, beating Gustavsson with a wrister to cut the Wild lead to 2-1.

The Flames pressed and had a few good looks in the back half of the third period, but the Wild drew a pair of penalties in the last few minutes. The Flames killed off a five-on-three… but on the back half of that sequence, the waning moments of the second penalty, Matt Boldy scored to give the Wild a 3-1 lead.

Kirill Kaprizov scored on the empty net with Cooley on the bench for the extra attacker to give the Wild a 4-1 win.

Third period shots were 16-10 Wild.

This was Flames Hockey, for better or worse. Lots of chances? Yes, but a lot of them weren’t especially dangerous. Defensively stout? Sure, but their few breakdowns were pretty glaring and led to both of Minnesota’s goals. Special teams opportunities? Sure, but the power play continued its year-long cold spell and failed to cash in at key moments of the game.

Let’s give it to Morgan Frost. He scored the lone goal, but he was also quite strong at the face-off dot.

This is not meant to be an indictment of Devin Cooley, but the Flames allowed two goals on their first three shots against. That’s rarely a recipe for success.

Devin Cooley started for the Flames, who have rotated netminders for the past nine games. Otherwise, they had the same lineup that they used on Sunday against Anaheim.

This was the 10th NHL game of the season for 19-year-old Matvei Gridin, triggering his entry-level contract to begin tolling. Had he played less than 10 NHL games this season, his deal would have slid to next season.

Join Cami Kepke and myself from the In The Dome podcast right after the game for After Burner!

The Flames (21-26-6) are headed home. They host the San Jose Sharks on Saturday afternoon.

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