Mikael Backlund’s first-period goal gave Calgary the lead and the Flames never looked back, picking up two huge points with a 4-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Friday.
Yegor Sharangovich, Nazem Kadri and Ryan Lomberg also scored for Calgary (38-27-14), which has points in five straight games (3-0-2).
The Flames climbed to within three points of both St. Louis and Minnesota — who occupy the two wild-card spots in the Western Conference — with three games remaining.
Calgary has a game in hand on both teams and will be looking for help on the out-of-town scoreboard Saturday when the Wild play in Vancouver and the Blues visit Seattle.
Yakov Trenin and Gustav Nyquist scored for Minnesota (43-30-7), with both goals coming in the game’s final five minutes. The Wild have lost six straight on the road (0-4-2).
Starting his season-high sixth game in a row, rookie goaltender Dustin Wolf made 16 saves to improve to 27-16-8.
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Filip Gustavsson had 25 stops for the Wild before being replaced by Marc-Andre Fleury after Lomberg’s goal at 7:20 of the third.
Takeaways
Wild: Gustavsson entered the night 5-0-2 against Calgary in his career with a .953 save percentage. Early on, it looked like that dominance would continue. He turned the Flames aside time and time again, including a diving stop with his paddle when he pulled the puck off the goal line. But the Flames broke through at 16:25 when Backlund banged in Blake Coleman’s rebound.
Flames: Calgary’s penalty kill only ranks 26th on the season, but the team has been second-best in the league while short-handed since the 4 Nations break. The recent improvement was on display late in the second with the score 3-0. Minnesota got back-to-back power plays, but could only muster a total of two shots. The Flames have killed off 15 of 16 opportunities over their last nine games.
Key moment
The NHL’s second-lowest scoring team entering the night, Calgary gave itself some rare breathing room early in the second period when Sharangovich and Kadri scored less than two minutes apart to open up a 3-0 lead.
Key stat
With 4-3 and 5-4 victories earlier in the year, Calgary swept the season series with the Wild for the first time since 2016-17.
Up next
Wild: Visit the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.
Flames: Host the San Jose Sharks on Sunday.
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