The Calgary Flames beat the Minnesota Wild by a 2-1 score on Saturday afternoon. Here are selected reactions from players and coaches following the game.

Special teams performances were massive for the Flames in their win. In particular, the kill of a late delay of game bench minor was crucial in cementing the two points.

The minor came at 17:23 of the third period, and seemingly came as a result of Sean Monahan tying his skate (and delaying the face-off) after an icing. Per the NHL rulebook, the officials did have the ability to levy the penalty – though the rulebook says they have to warn the captain or alternate captain before calling the penalty.

Head coach Bill Peters couldn’t say if the skate-tying was what led to the infraction – he said the referees didn’t tell him anything – but he understood the call.

“I get where they’re coming from on it,” said Peters. “It looks like we’re trying to delay the game. We’re really not. I go back to the icing, I didn’t like the icing call that led to that D-zone faceoff. It either hit their defenseman or went through him. I didn’t think it was icing, and that was a little bit of the confusion, for sure.”

The other big performance by the penalty kill came in the first period, where Mark Giordano scored a shorthanded goal on Devan Dubnyk. It was the eighth shortie scored by the Flames this season, the second-most in the NHL. Peters credited assistant coach Ryan Huska with the group’s effectiveness, especially without Mikael Backlund.

“Without Backs we’ve really been killing with eight people – four forwards, four D – and they’ve done a real good job,” said Peters.

In four games without Backlund, Mark Jankowski, Garnet Hathaway, Elias Lindholm and Derek Ryan have been the primary penalty-killing forwards. On the blueline, it’s been Giordano, Travis Hamonic, Noah Hanifin and a mix of TJ Brodie and Rasmus Andersson. During the four games without Backlund, the Flames’ penalty kill is out-scoring opposition power plays by a 2-1 margin.

The presence of Dalton Prout in the lineup surprised many onlookers, this writer included. Peters alluded to some injuries on the back end – using the term “banged up” – and in a situation where the Flames are playing back-to-back games he didn’t want to risk dressing six defensemen and having one drop out due to injury.