Was it harder than it should have been in the end?
Yes, and the Calgary Flames will probably have a few chats on Sunday morning about the way the Minnesota Wild came storming back late in what felt like it was going to be a lopsided win on Saturday.
But hopefully, most of the focus will be on an otherwise outstanding performance that earned the Flames a third-straight win, a 5-4 victory against an opponent who the Flames may find themselves jostling with for playoff position in a few months’ time.
“I liked our game, probably 58 minutes of it,” Flames head coach Ryan Huska told reporters. “We did a lot of good things on the road in a tough place to play. The last couple minutes, it got a little hairy, but it’s the small little plays that are often the difference in the game.”
To get it out of the way before moving on to the positive, the Flames were up 5-2 late in the game when the Wild got goals from Marcus Foligno and Mats Zuccarello to pull to within one with 27 seconds left on the clock.
But the Flames managed to lock down and get over the line, earning a precious two points that pushed them five points ahead of the Vancouver Canucks, who played later on Saturday, in the second Western Conference Wild Card spot.
And if you put that late lapse to the side, there was a lot to be happy about from the Flames. Goals are suddenly coming from everywhere, which is not something we’ve often been able to say about the group this season.
Andrei Kuzmenko seems to be getting hot after a months-long slump. He scored twice on Saturday. Rasmus Andersson got his first goal in 20 games, while Martin Pospisil lit the lamp after being held goalless for 25 games.
Nothing compares to the wait for a goal that Clark Bishop had to endure, though. Bishop was called up from the AHL earlier this week and scored for the second time in the NHL against the Wild. His last one came on December 7, 2018, a full 2,241 days ago.
With Dustin Wolf stopping 21-of-25 shots, the Flames got what they needed to outlast the Wild. It wasn’t comfortable in the end, but it was enough.
Here’s three takeaways from Saturday’s game:
1. HOPING FOR THE BEST
It wasn’t all good news for the Flames, who were without Kevin Bahl for the back-half of the game after he was hit from behind into the boards by the Wild’s Jakub Lauko.
Lauko was assessed only a two minute minor for boarding for the hit, which was a surprise to this reporter as it was right in the numbers and seemed like a textbook example of the sort of hit the NHL has been trying for years to get out of the game.
Bahl took a long time to get up and while he was able to skate to the bench on his own he went straight to the lockerroom and did not return. Huska did not have an update post-game.
It goes without saying that losing Bahl for any length of time would be brutal for the Flames. He’s a top-pairing defenceman and has been a revelation since being acquired in the trade that sent Jacob Markstrom to the New Jersey Devils.
The Flames will be hoping for a positive prognosis from their doctors.
2. DOING WHAT HE DOES
At this point, it feels like we’re talking about Ryan Lomberg and what he brings to the Flames on a weekly basis.
He made sure Lauko paid for his hit on Bahl, dropping the gloves with him in a spirited scrap that seemed to change the momentum of the game in the Flames’ favour.
Lomberg has now fought seven times this season. Only two players around the league have fought more, and both of them – Mathieu Olivier and Mark Kastelic – are considerably bigger than the Flames winger.
“He does that, right?” Andersson told reporters. “We love when he does it and you don’t take it for granted, either. It’s a tough role to have but he’s an energy giver and he gave us a lot of energy tonight.”
Lomberg’s fight did more than just avenge the hit on Bahl, if that’s how you choose to see it. It also seemed to light a spark under the Flames, who seemed to seize the game’s momentum and scored twice before the second period was over.
3. HEATING UP
After going three months without scoring a goal, Kuzmenko suddenly has three in the Flames’ last three games.
If the Russian winger has turned a corner and can start contributing offensively, the significance of that can’t be understated.
Kuzmenko’s primary value is as a goal-scorer, so when he wasn’t scoring it was sometimes hard to justify his place in the lineup.
He did well to deflect a shot from Nazem Kadri on a power-play in the first period and his game-winner on a wraparound seemed to kill the momentum any Wild had picked up when Frederick Gaudreau scored midway through the third period.
“I thought he was moving his feet and when he moves hi feet he’s around the puck and he’s very strong on it,” Huska told reporters. “We saw that tonight.”
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