1. Better, but not good enough
The Wild certainly looked more like the team it has been for the vast majority of the season on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, teams don't get points in the standings for playing better, and Wild coach Dean Evason has indicated as much in the last couple of weeks.
"We did everything but score. And that includes our power play sucked, and our goal scoring sucked. Everything else was great," Evason said. "Our physicality was great, our commitment was great, our chances, we out-chanced them. Everything was great but we didn't score goals.
"We've taken a step in the right direction, we believe. We're still pissed off obviously that we didn't win, but we took a step in the right direction, but not backwards tonight."
One other aspect of the Wild's game that did struggle however was the penalty kill, which surrendered a pair of goals on this night.
After scoring in the opening two minutes of the game in Calgary to take an early lead, the Wild fell behind early in the rematch, taking a penalty 24 seconds into the contest, then surrendering a power-play goal.
"I mean it's tough to want to have a good stuff and then to be down one it's tough," said Wild forward Marcus Foligno. "They're a good hockey team. They're heavy. We played a lot better tonight but still not happy with the end result. We liked our response. But in a way it's still not good enough. When you go through slumps like this that's the type of effort that gets you out of it.
"That's how we have to play. It's a lesson in the season that we learned. Just because you're mentally ready for the game, we weren't last game, it's not going to always result in a win. Take this in stride and move on to the next game. This is what needs to be done and then some more."
Andrew Mangiapane doubled the lead 11 1/2 minutes later, taking advantage of a fluky bounce in front that had Wild goaltender Cam Talbot out of position, and despite outshooting Calgary 12-9 in the opening 20 minutes, the Wild found itself down 2-zip on the scoreboard.
"We talked about this earlier in the year, some people weren't scoring. We played the right way. We played and conducted ourselves the proper way, pucks just did not go into the net," Evason said. "We hit some posts, they made some saves, whatever, we didn't score. But if we continue to do that, continually have opportunities to score, they'll go in."
It continued to push in the second, halving the lead midway through the middle frame on a goal by Foligno off a sweet feed from Kirill Kaprizov and an underrated chip up the wall by Joel Eriksson Ek, that sprang Minnesota with numbers into the Flames' zone.
Video: CGY@MIN: Foligno cashes in on Kaprizov's dish
It capped a couple of shifts in a row where the Wild was able to build on its momentum, and the goal gave Xcel Energy Center some serious life.
Unfortunately for the Wild, Calgary came back on the very next shift and reestablished the two-goal advantage on a one-timer by Elias Lindholm 21 seconds after Foligno's goal.
"Obviously, you get the crowd back in it, and next shift they go back and get one, but it's not the reason we lost the game," said Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon. "The effort was better than the last game against them. Physicality-wise, we were more involved. It's something we're going to have to continue to do to get out of this."
2. Early bird gets the worm
They say that goals in the first or last minute or two of a period can have a dramatic affect on a hockey game, specifically when it comes to old uncle Mo.
That was certainly the case on this night.
Matthew Tkachuk took advantage of an early Wild penalty, potting his 27th goal of the season just 72 seconds into the hockey game, to get Calgary off and running.
Minnesota trailed by two at both intermissions, but still had a glimmer of hope to start the third ... if only it could kill off a Matt Boldy tripping penalty late in the second.
It couldn't.
Just 33 seconds into the third, Tyler Toffoli was left all alone in front and he redirected a nice centering feed from Johnny Gaudreau to extend the Flames lead to three goals for the first time in the game.
Sure, there was still 19 minutes and change left in the game, but that goal -- like Lindholm's answer of Foligno's second-period marker -- were absolute gut punches. The timing of Toffoli's in particular was especially damaging to the psyche of a team that could be a little fragile now, on the heels of four consecutive losses.
"We still think we're fine with 3-1, and we need to clear that puck on the penalty kill, and it ends up in our net, and that really hurt us for sure," Evason said. "Both [the third and fourth] goals were momentum shifting situations. But still kept pushing, still kept doing the right things, still got opportunities, still got looks. We'll continue to do that."
3. A milestone night for the captain
Few players in franchise history have worn the Wild crest on their sweater for more games than captain Jared Spurgeon, who skated in his 743rd NHL game on Tuesday night.
That tied Spurgeon for most games played by a defenseman in team history, equalling the record previously held by Nick Schultz.
Only one man stands ahead of Spurgeon now on the team's all-time games played list ... and that's former captain Mikko Koivu, who played in 1,028 games and will have his No. 9 jersey sent to the Xcel Energy Center rafters later this month.
Spurgeon, the second full-time captain in Wild history, has 94 goals and 231 assists and 325 points in his 743 games since debuting with Minnesota on Nov. 29, 2010, ironically, against the Calgary Flames at the Saddledome.
Loose pucks
- The Wild's 48 hits were a franchise record, besting the previous high of 46 in 2010
- Eriksson Ek has six points in his past eight games and is one point shy of his career high (30) set last season
- Kaprizov's assist was his 40th of the season, making him the ninth person in team history to record 40 assists in a campaign
- Talbot finished with 22 saves on 26 shots in his first start in a week
- Mikael Backlund, Gaudreau, Tkachuk, Lindholm, Toffoli and Mangiapane each recorded two-point nights
- Markstrom saved 32 of 33 shots to record his 25th victory of the season
- Attendance: 16,998
Dan's three stars
1. Elias Lindholm
2. Jacob Markstrom
3. Tyler Toffoli
Highlights
Video: MIN Recap: Foligno scores lone goal in loss to Flames
Article From & Read More ( Postgame Hat Trick: Flames 5, Wild 1 - NHL.com )https://ift.tt/93MYUxv
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