The Minnesota Wild and Calgary Flames faced off for the final time of the regular season on Friday night, Apr. 11. The Wild had a chance to clinch a spot in the postseason and eliminate the Flames with a win. The Wild were without Jake Middleton but later lost Jared Spurgeon in the second period, while the Flames’ injury list contained Connor Zary, Justin Kirkland, and Anthony Mantha.
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The goaltending battle was between Filip Gustavsson for the Wild and Dustin Wolf for the Flames. The game started evenly matched, but the Flames took control and ran with it. The Wild tried to fight back, but the Flames were too strong as they won 4-2. This moved the Wild’s record to 43-28-9 and the Flames to 38-27-14.
Game Recap
Both sides had chances in the first period, and the Flames were the team to get the puck in the net first. Mikael Backlund scored late in the first to make it 1-0, assisted by Blake Coleman. That was the only goal of the first, and the Flames took the lead into the second.
In the second period, the Flames continued to score goals. Yegor Sharangovich tipped a shot past Gustavsson to make it 2-0. Martin Pospisil assisted him. A couple of minutes later, on the power play, Nazem Kadri scored to give his team a 3-0 lead. Morgan Frost and Matt Coronato assisted him. That was the final goal of the second, and the Flames once again took a lead into intermission.
The Flames were first on the board in the third and took a commanding 4-0 lead. Ryan Lomberg scored the goal, and he was unassisted. The Wild tried to make a comeback as Yakov Trenin scored unassisted to make it 4-1 late in the third. They added one more goal scored by Gustav Nyquist, which gave their team a small amount of hope in the final minutes. Frédérick Gaudreau assisted him, but it was too little too late, and the Flames won 4-2.
The Flames kept their playoff hopes alive with the win and pushed the Wild into dangerous territory. The Wild will play their final road game of the regular season against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday, Apr. 12 in the second half of their back-to-back. The Flames will remain home to host the San Jose Sharks on Sunday, Apr. 13.
