CALGARY — Mikael Backlund’s first-period purpose gave Calgary the lead and the Flames by no means appeared again, selecting up two huge factors with a 4-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Friday.
Yegor Sharangovich, Nazem Kadri and Ryan Lomberg additionally scored for Calgary (38-27-14), which has factors in 5 straight video games (3-0-2).
The Flames climbed to inside three factors of each St. Louis and Minnesota — who occupy the 2 wild-card spots within the Western Convention — with three video games remaining.
Calgary has a recreation in hand on each groups and can be on the lookout for assistance on the out-of-town scoreboard Saturday when the Wild play in Vancouver and the Blues go to Seattle.
Yakov Trenin and Gustav Nyquist scored for Minnesota (43-30-7), with each objectives coming within the recreation’s last 5 minutes. The Wild have misplaced six straight on the highway (0-4-2).
Beginning his season-high sixth recreation in a row, rookie goaltender Dustin Wolf made 16 saves to enhance to 27-16-8.
Filip Gustavsson had 25 stops for the Wild earlier than being changed by Marc-Andre Fleury after Lomberg’s purpose at 7:20 of the third.
Wild: Gustavsson entered the evening 5-0-2 in opposition to Calgary in his profession with a .953 save share. Early on, it appeared like that dominance would proceed. He turned the Flames apart time and time once more, together with a diving cease with his paddle when he pulled the puck off the purpose line. However the Flames broke by at 16:25 when Backlund banged in Blake Coleman’s rebound.
Flames: Calgary’s penalty kill solely ranks twenty sixth on the season, however the workforce has been second-best within the league whereas short-handed for the reason that 4 Nations break. The current enchancment was on show late within the second with the rating 3-0. Minnesota bought back-to-back energy performs, however may solely muster a complete of two pictures. The Flames have killed off 15 of 16 alternatives over their final 9 video games.
The NHL’s second-lowest scoring workforce getting into the evening, Calgary gave itself some uncommon respiration room early within the second interval when Sharangovich and Kadri scored lower than two minutes aside to open up a 3-0 lead.
With 4-3 and 5-4 victories earlier within the yr, Calgary swept the season collection with the Wild for the primary time since 2016-17.
Wild: Go to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.
Flames: Host the San Jose Sharks on Sunday.
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