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CALGARY, Alberta – One of the many often-repeated truisms of hockey says that trying to end another team’s season is among the hardest games you will play.
The Minnesota Wild, with a chance to clinch a playoff spot and put the Calgary Flames on the brink of elimination from the playoff race, found that task harder than they could manage on Friday.
Just 48 hours after they had posted a season-best eight goals in a home win, the Wild’s offense ran dry in Alberta, as Calgary led from start to finish, winning 4-2 and ensuring that Minnesota’s postseason plans would have to wait.
Dustin Wolf, the lanky northern California kid who has been Calgary’s mainstay as a rookie goalie, needed to stop just 16 shots to grab the two points that pull the Flames within three of Minnesota in the Western Conference standings, with Calgary possessing a game in hand. Yakov Trenin spoiled the Calgary shootout with 4:21 left in a game that was already decided, and Minnesota got an extra attacker goal from Gustav Nyquist but could not close the gap.
Wild coach John Hynes said this is two games in a row where the team has not played to its identity.
“San Jose game was a little bit of a pond hockey game for us, and then tonight we were the second most competitive team on the ice, so that’s not really who we are and what we’ve been, but we’ve got to make sure that that’s gonna be different tomorrow night,” he said, referencing the road game at Vancouver that is looming.
The Wild, with two games remaining, still control their own playoff destiny, but are now at significant risk of an eighth-place finish, which would mean a playoff visit to conference-leading Winnipeg starting next week.
Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson had 25 saves for the Wild before giving way to Marc-Andre Fleury with 12:40 to play in the game. Gustavsson will start Saturday’s game in Vancouver, with Minnesota in even more desperate need of points now. And in an all-too-familiar story this season, the Wild lost another player of note to injury, as captain Jared Spurgeon missed most of the second period, returned for a few shifts in the third, then left the game before the final horn.
Calgary, which won all three of its games versus the Wild this season, got a pair of second period goals to break open a tight game, and has two of its remaining three games at home.
After the Wild survived a few early scares, Calgary broke through, when Gustavsson stopped a long-range shot, but Mikael Backlund flipped the rebound over the goalie’s blocker, giving the Flames a one-goal lead at the end of the first period.
Spurgeon was injured on his opening shift of the second period, and then things got worse for the visitors when Yegor Sharangovich deflected a puck past Gustavsson on the stick side for a 2-0 Flames lead. The deficit grew to three when Calgary scored on the game’s first power play.
“There’s just times (that we have to) play simple and we don’t do it and it bites us. We didn’t generate a lot of shots to the net. We passed up things in the second where maybe we could have found momentum,” Marcus Foligno said. “That’s the thing, I think sometimes we kill ourselves on momentum. There’s a time in the game where you can turn it around, (and) we choose a harder play or not thinking quicker and tonight it bit us.”
Minnesota’s best chance to chip away came late in the second when Calgary was called for consecutive penalties, giving the Wild nearly four straight minutes of man advantage. But they managed just two shots on Wolf in that span and headed to the second intermission still down by three. The Wild had shots by Vinnie Hinostroza and Joel Eriksson Ek strike posts in the period, but both slid harmlessly away.
The Wild pressured Wolf to start the third, but a fumbled puck at the blue line led to a Calgary breakaway which made it 4-0 and prompted the goalie change. Trenin got a late breakaway goal past Wolf. Fleury, in what could be his final NHL regular season appearance, stopped the three shots he faced.
Calgary, which came into the game leading the NHL with a whopping 14 losses either in overtime or in a shootout, still clings to hope of making the playoffs, but the Flames cannot help but lament all of those potential points missed in the regular season’s first 79 games.
“The game in November is just as important, to make sure we finish, as it is now. We’ve got zero runway left now,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said before the game. “You want them to learn to prepare and treat every game as the most important of the year. You go into the year wanting to play playoff hockey, not wanting to play games at this time of year.”
Hynes said he was unsure of the status of Spurgeon, who appeared to get hit in the throat by a puck, for Saturday’s game. Spurgeon leaned on Sharangovich during a stoppage of play before making his way to the bench early in the second.
“It was sort of serious. I was not understanding what he was saying to me. I thinks it’s my English. He just catched me,” Sharangovich said. “I feel bad because I should help him. He (held) me and the referee helped him after. After I asked what happened and he said, he lost his breath.”
Minnesota played a third consecutive game without defenseman Jake Middleton, who is on the road trip but has not returned to the lineup since going headfirst into the end boards in a road loss to the New York Islanders a week ago. Hynes said Middleton is a possibility to return for the Vancouver game.
The Wild’s final road game of the season is Saturday night in Vancouver versus a Canucks team that has been eliminated from the playoff race.
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The Minnesota Wild, with a chance to clinch a playoff spot and put the Calgary Flames on the brink of elimination from the playoff race, found that task harder than they could manage on Friday.
Just 48 hours after they had posted a season-best eight goals in a home win, the Wild’s offense ran dry in Alberta, as Calgary led from start to finish, winning 4-2 and ensuring that Minnesota’s postseason plans would have to wait.
Dustin Wolf, the lanky northern California kid who has been Calgary’s mainstay as a rookie goalie, needed to stop just 16 shots to grab the two points that pull the Flames within three of Minnesota in the Western Conference standings, with Calgary possessing a game in hand. Yakov Trenin spoiled the Calgary shootout with 4:21 left in a game that was already decided, and Minnesota got an extra attacker goal from Gustav Nyquist but could not close the gap.
Wild coach John Hynes said this is two games in a row where the team has not played to its identity.
“San Jose game was a little bit of a pond hockey game for us, and then tonight we were the second most competitive team on the ice, so that’s not really who we are and what we’ve been, but we’ve got to make sure that that’s gonna be different tomorrow night,” he said, referencing the road game at Vancouver that is looming.
The Wild, with two games remaining, still control their own playoff destiny, but are now at significant risk of an eighth-place finish, which would mean a playoff visit to conference-leading Winnipeg starting next week.
Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson had 25 saves for the Wild before giving way to Marc-Andre Fleury with 12:40 to play in the game. Gustavsson will start Saturday’s game in Vancouver, with Minnesota in even more desperate need of points now. And in an all-too-familiar story this season, the Wild lost another player of note to injury, as captain Jared Spurgeon missed most of the second period, returned for a few shifts in the third, then left the game before the final horn.
Calgary, which won all three of its games versus the Wild this season, got a pair of second period goals to break open a tight game, and has two of its remaining three games at home.
After the Wild survived a few early scares, Calgary broke through, when Gustavsson stopped a long-range shot, but Mikael Backlund flipped the rebound over the goalie’s blocker, giving the Flames a one-goal lead at the end of the first period.
Spurgeon was injured on his opening shift of the second period, and then things got worse for the visitors when Yegor Sharangovich deflected a puck past Gustavsson on the stick side for a 2-0 Flames lead. The deficit grew to three when Calgary scored on the game’s first power play.
“There’s just times (that we have to) play simple and we don’t do it and it bites us. We didn’t generate a lot of shots to the net. We passed up things in the second where maybe we could have found momentum,” Marcus Foligno said. “That’s the thing, I think sometimes we kill ourselves on momentum. There’s a time in the game where you can turn it around, (and) we choose a harder play or not thinking quicker and tonight it bit us.”
Minnesota’s best chance to chip away came late in the second when Calgary was called for consecutive penalties, giving the Wild nearly four straight minutes of man advantage. But they managed just two shots on Wolf in that span and headed to the second intermission still down by three. The Wild had shots by Vinnie Hinostroza and Joel Eriksson Ek strike posts in the period, but both slid harmlessly away.
The Wild pressured Wolf to start the third, but a fumbled puck at the blue line led to a Calgary breakaway which made it 4-0 and prompted the goalie change. Trenin got a late breakaway goal past Wolf. Fleury, in what could be his final NHL regular season appearance, stopped the three shots he faced.
Calgary, which came into the game leading the NHL with a whopping 14 losses either in overtime or in a shootout, still clings to hope of making the playoffs, but the Flames cannot help but lament all of those potential points missed in the regular season’s first 79 games.
“The game in November is just as important, to make sure we finish, as it is now. We’ve got zero runway left now,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said before the game. “You want them to learn to prepare and treat every game as the most important of the year. You go into the year wanting to play playoff hockey, not wanting to play games at this time of year.”
Hynes said he was unsure of the status of Spurgeon, who appeared to get hit in the throat by a puck, for Saturday’s game. Spurgeon leaned on Sharangovich during a stoppage of play before making his way to the bench early in the second.
“It was sort of serious. I was not understanding what he was saying to me. I thinks it’s my English. He just catched me,” Sharangovich said. “I feel bad because I should help him. He (held) me and the referee helped him after. After I asked what happened and he said, he lost his breath.”
Minnesota played a third consecutive game without defenseman Jake Middleton, who is on the road trip but has not returned to the lineup since going headfirst into the end boards in a road loss to the New York Islanders a week ago. Hynes said Middleton is a possibility to return for the Vancouver game.
The Wild’s final road game of the season is Saturday night in Vancouver versus a Canucks team that has been eliminated from the playoff race.
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