In St Paul Tuesday night, the Minnesota Wild won the match with the Calgary Flames, 2-1, in the skills competition but lost starting goalie Devan Dubnyk with a lower body injury after the first period.
Alex Stalock relieved Dubnyk and made 16 saves to get the win.
“It’s amazing how many times a backup goalie comes in in a game and shuts the other team down,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said.
There was no update on Dubnyk after the game.
“[Dubnyk] played a heck of a first and gave us a chance right out of the gates. But I just kind of had to make the saves that I had to, really. There was no outrageous saves or anything. We did a great job on the kill at the end; they didn’t have a ton of chances. Other than that, it was a game to step in and not make a mistake,” Stalock said after the win.
The Wild took the lead late in the fist period on a goal from Matt Cullen.
“It’s always nice to contribute,” Cullen said. “It was a tight game. It wasn’t a pretty game. A huge two points for us.”
The Flames tied it up in the middle frame on a strike from Micheal Ferland.
“It was a great play by Johnny [Gaudreau] and just one of those bounces you wish would just go in,” Ferland said. “I couldn’t have been more wide open and [Gaudreau] made a great play and I should have put that in.”
The Flames are 2-0-2 in their four.
“I look at it a little bit more as missed opportunities. I liked our 5-on-5 game. I didn’t like our power play tonight; I thought that could have bailed us [out] and got us two points, even late on the last one,” Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan said after the loss. “You get four cracks there, you want to take advantage. And I didn’t think that was good enough. … [But] I thought we played well tonight, I thought we were the better team for most of the minutes, but our specialty teams weren’t good enough.”
[WATCH: All Flames vs. Wild highlights]
Mike Smith made 21 saves in the loss as the Flames dropped to 16-12-3.
“From start to finish, I thought we were pretty solid all the way through,” Smith said. “I think we came out the first 10 minutes and kind of dictated the pace of play. They’re a tough team and in this building; they don’t give you much. We had some chances there that we’d like to see us capitalize on, but at least the chances are there. We’re getting them, we’ve just got to start putting them in the net. But as far as the effort there, it was a big point.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.