The Minnesota Wild fought but couldn't find the way back in a 5-4 loss to the Calgary Flames in a chippy game Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.
It was a physical battle that included a Jakub Lauko-Ryan Lomberg fight and saw Marc-Andre Fleury get punched in the face during a second-period scrum. But between the physical battles, the Wild were thoroughly outplayed on the ice.
The Flames (24-16-7) struck first. Andrei Kuzmenko scored the first of the night on the power play 6 minutes, 58 seconds into the first period, though Joel Eriksson Ek knotted it up 2 minutes, 36 seconds later to make it a 1-1 game after one period.
Just over a minute after the Lauko-Lomberg fight, Martin Pospisil put the Flames up. Rasmus Andersson, the defenseman who punched Fleury in the face in the scrum, scored with eight seconds remaining in the second to make it a two-goal advantage.
Clark Bishop made it a three-goal game 11 minutes, 53 seconds into the third period. Then the Wild (28-17-4) tried to make a push. Freddy Gaudreau scored a power-play goal 2 minutes, 22 seconds later to cut it back to two. While Kuzmenko scored his second of the night just 14 seconds later for the apparent dagger, it wasn't quite over.
Marcus Foligno scored with 1 minute, 14 seconds remaining to cut it back to two. Minnesota then pulled Fleury and found another goal with the extra skater with 27 seconds remaining as Mats Zuccarello deflected a shot from Jared Spurgeon. Despite winning the faceoff after a timeout, the Wild couldn't convert on their one final push.
The Flames had a 29-24 edge in shots on goal. Fleury had 24 saves on those 29 shots, while Dustin Wolf had 20 saves on the 24 for the Flames.
It's a quick turnaround for the Wild, who will now travel to take on the Chicago Blackhawks Sunday night. Puck drop in Chicago is scheduled for 6 p.m.
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