Flames dominate late to douse Wild point streak

Missed opportunities early and missed assignments late turned out to be a bad combination for the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night A trio of third-period goals by Calgary broke open a tie tournament as the Flames skated to a - win and handed the Wild their first regulation loss in nearly a month Yakov Trenin scored the only goal for Minnesota which had previously claimed at least a point in a dozen consecutive games While things fell apart in the final minutes the championship may have been lost early as Minnesota was for on the power play in the first period missing repeated chances to grab a critical lead on the road Filip Gustavsson finished with saves falling to - - as Minnesota s goalie of record this season He went to the bench with more than three minutes remaining in the third in favor of an extra attacker but the effort fell short as Calgary hit the empty net with just under a minute to play Since a - loss in Carolina on Nov the Wild had gone - - prior to Thursday Calgary which is the Western Conference s most-penalized company thus far this season upheld that reputation in the first period The Flames spent eight of the opening minutes playing short-handed which allowed the Wild to enjoy decided advantages in shots and in possession time but not on the scoreboard as the Calgary penalty kill was perfect The Flames penalty kill has been among the NHL s best this season They did admirable work disrupting the Wild offense and goalie Dustin Wolf did the rest with first period saves Momentum swung hard to the home squad in the middle frame with the Flames taking a lead and holding the Wild without a shot on goal for nearly minutes in the second Jonathan Huberdeau got the battle s first goal scoring from his knees after Ryan Hartman blocked the initial shot in front of Gustavsson but the rebound proved to be dangerous The Wild did certain line juggling later in the second to try and generate particular offense putting Joel Eriksson Ek at center between Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy That trio got specific needed offensive zone time and tested Wolf Minnesota certainly forged a tie when Trenin redirected a Zach Bogosian shot late in the second The assist was the first point of the season for Bogosian who missed more than a month with a lower-body injury The third turned out to be disastrous for the Wild Calgary scored twice in the first six minutes both of them off defensive miscues by Minnesota taking control of the match Wolf finished with saves for the Flames who will decide the winner of their season series with the Wild on Jan when they visit St Paul The Wild won their first meeting - at Grand Casino Arena on Nov Minnesota s four-game western road trip continues on Saturday night when the Wild visit Vancouver for the first time this season The opening faceoff is at p m CT Briefly The Wild were without rookie forward Danila Yurov for a second consecutive encounter He is on the road trip but is still working his way back from a lower-body injury He skated in current times in practice Wild coach John Hynes noted following the crew s morning skate in Calgary He s going to do certain extra hard skate now and see how everything feels So it looks like he s imminent but not tonight Yurov has three goals and four assists in his first NHL games Related Articles Nico Sturm a greater asset for Wild as he gets up to speed NHL Cretin-Derham Hall s Ryan McDonaugh signs extension with Lightning Organizers have high hopes for World Juniors tournament Jesper Wallstedt impenetrable again as Wild blank Edmonton Edmonton means home and hockey for Jared Spurgeon