In Calgary Wednesday, the Minnesota Wild were rudely reminded on their need t focus for 60 minutes in a hockey game.
Calgary’s Brian Elliott had a solid game and made 28 saves in stifling the Wild offense in a 5-1 Flames win.
Sean Monahan scored twice in win over Wild – File photo by Jack Lima
“I think we’re capable of lots of things if we stick with it and believe in ourselves,” Calgary coach Glen Gulutzan said. “We have enough skill in our room to get us points every night. We should grow a little bit from this game.”
Coming off a four-game scheid, the Flames have now two straight.
Sean Monahan led the offense with two goals.
“Right now I’m getting some good looks,” Monahan said. “I’m just going to try to continue to work hard and be there for the team.”
Devan Dubnyk made 31 saves in Minnesota’s first regulation loss after 14 games.
“It’s a long season,” Dubnyk said. “It’s not going to be perfect all the time. All we’ve got to do is understand why that game was 5-1 and get back to playing how we want to.”
The Wild had been 12-0-2 on the streak.
“We followed up with a few good shifts right after [the goal],” Wild forward Zach Parise said. “I think in here we thought, ‘Hey, we’re going to turn it around,’ and it didn’t happen.”
WATCH: All Wild vs. Flames highlights
Deryk Engelland, Alex Chiasson and Micheal Ferland also had goals for Calgary.
“They’re a really good team for a reason. They played [Tuesday] night and we knew that, so we had to come out with a big start. [Elliott] was huge at key times in the game to keep us up, and when we got the chances we put it in the back of the net,” Engelland said of the Wild.
Jason Zucker was the lone goal scorer for the Wild.
“Back-to-back off a break, it’s not easy because you don’t really practice that hard the day before. It sounds like an excuse, but our guys were tired. We played nine games in 15 days. We get a break and then you come back and play back-to-back. I think we’ll be much better in Vancouver [on Saturday],” Minnesota head coach Bruce Boudreau said.
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