Welcome to Instant Reaction, where we give you our instant reaction to tonight’s Calgary Flames game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below!
The Calgary Flames returned home on Friday evening to host the Minnesota Wild, the team they’re trying to reel in for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. With their season on the line, the Flames played the exact game they needed to play.
The Flames scored first and never trailed en route to a 4-2 home win over the Wild to keep their post-season hopes alive.

The rundown

The Flames had some jump in their collective steps in the first period. They skated. They played well on both sides of the puck. And they generated some nice scoring chances because they were moving their feet.
Midway through the period, the Flames nearly scored off a scrambly play in the Wild end. A puck ricocheted off a couple players, bonked off Morgan Frost’s skate and nearly crossed the line before Wild netminder Filip Gustavsson dove and swiped the puck off the goal line with his stick.
A little later, the Flames netted one. Gustavsson went to play the puck behind the net on a Flames dump-in, and his pass around the boards was intercepted by a forechecking Blake Coleman. Coleman chucked the puck on net. Gustavsson made the initial save, but Mikael Backlund was right on his doorstep to whack in the rebound to give the Flames a 1-0 lead.
First period shots were 14-7 Flames. Via Natural Stat Trick, five-on-five scoring chances were 12-6 Flames (high-danger chances were 6-2 Flames).
The Flames added to their lead 5:31 into the second period. Yegor Sharangovich made a zone entry, passed to Martin Pospisil, and then got his stick on Pospisil’s shot as he drove his way towards the slot area, redirecting the puck past Gustavsson to make it 2-0 Flames.
A little later, Jonas Brodin was called for a hooking minor on Nazem Kadri. On the resulting man advantage, the Flames parked Jonathan Huberdeau in front of the net and Kadri took advantage of the screen to beat Gustavsson to make it 3-0 Flames.
The Wild had a couple power plays later on, overlapping by 18 seconds, but the Flames killed them both off.
Second period shots were 12-6 Flames. Five-on-five scoring chances were 6-2 Flames (high-danger chances were 1-0 Flames).
The Wild pressed to begin the third period, but the Flames defended fairly well.
Ryan Lomberg yoinked the puck away from a Wild defender at the blueline and went for a skate, beating Gustavsson stick-side to give the Flames a 4-0 lead.
(That spelled the end of Gustavsson’s evening, as Marc-Andre Fleury came into the game in relief.)
Yakov Trenin scored on a late breakaway (after a turnover and delayed penalty on Adam Klapka) to break Dustin Wolf’s shutout bid and cut the Flames’ lead to 4-1.
The Wild pulled their goaltender for an extra attacker, and Gustav Nyquist beat Wolf to cut the Flames’ lead to 4-2.
But that’s as close as they got, and the Flames won 4-2.
Third period shots were 6-5 Flames. Five-on-five scoring chances were 6-5 Flames (high-danger chances were 3-1 Wild).

Why the Flames won

There are times where pressure gets to a team and they get too amped up and try to do too much in a big game. In this game, the Flames were exactly what they needed to be. They played within their structure, they got some opportunistic offensive chances and buried them, and they didn’t give up too much to the Wild’s top guns.
The Flames looked like a team that wasn’t ready to call it quits in their playoff chase.

Red Warrior

It’s a joint award for the Backlund-Coleman-Coronato line, as they did a great job keeping Minnesota’s top guys quiet.

Turning point

The two quick goals in the second period gave the Flames a three goal lead and a ton of confidence. They didn’t look back from there.

This and that

Prior to the anthems, there was a moment of silence in memory of Greg Millen and Ray Shero.
Backlund’s goal tied Al MacInnis for seventh place on the franchise leaderboard. Kadri’s goal tied his career high.

Up next

The Flames (38-27-14) are back in action on Sunday night when they host the San Jose Sharks.

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