Devin Cooley turned another Calgary start into a win Thursday, stopping 36 shots as the Flames squeezed past the Minnesota Wild 2-1 at Scotiabank Saddledome. Calgary’s power play supplied the early separation, and Cooley handled a heavy third-period push to close out the club’s second straight victory.
The Flames, now 3-6-0, have opened their four-game homestand with back-to-back wins and have taken three of their past four. Minnesota fell to 6-3-2 after beginning its five-game road swing with an overtime loss in Edmonton on Tuesday.
Power play gives Calgary the runway
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Aydar Suniev opened the scoring at 10:49 of the first period while Calgary had the man advantage. Adam Klapka worked the puck from behind the Minnesota net into the slot, where Suniev snapped it high over Jesper Wallstedt’s glove for a 1-0 lead.
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Joel Farabee made it 2-0 at 14:06, again on the power play. Wallstedt denied Morgan Frost’s first attempt, but Farabee collected the rebound and put it past the goalie and Jared Spurgeon, who was trying to cover the crease.
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Michael McCarron got Minnesota on the board at 4:39 of the third. Nico Sturm found him in the right circle, and McCarron drove a slap shot home to cut the Calgary edge to one.
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The Wild poured 17 shots on Calgary in the final period, compared with three for the Flames, and pulled Wallstedt for an extra attacker late. Cooley did not yield another goal.
Cooley had made 34 saves in Calgary’s 3-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday. Against Minnesota, he stopped the first 24 shots he faced before McCarron’s third-period marker.
“I’m really glad I was able to make some saves, because the guys tonight were just unbelievable,” Cooley said. “Everyone was blocking shots. The power play was great. The penalty kill was great. It was just incredible.”
Calgary coach Ryan Huska liked the first 40 minutes, then watched his goalie take over when the game tightened.
“For two periods, I thought we were really good,” Huska said. “In the third period, our goaltender was our best player. When you find yourself in situations when you’re really pushing for a win, sometimes you take on a little water, and when we did, he was unreal.”
Farabee gets his first
Farabee’s finish was his first goal of the season, a breakthrough Huska believes could matter for a player who has continued to generate looks.
“He’s had a lot of chances,” Huska said. “As long as the chances are coming for him, he’s a bit of a streaker scorer, so we’re anticipating this will hopefully open some floodgates for him.”
Farabee said the win over Carolina carried into Thursday’s start.
“Beating Carolina last game definitely gave us a lot of confidence and we just rolled into this game with that same confidence,” Farabee said. “We had a good start and let that propel us throughout the game.”
Minnesota was left chasing after surrendering two first-period power-play goals. Blake Coleman, who was in the box for tripping when Suniev scored, pointed to the special-teams deficit.
“That’s two games in a row we lost the special teams battle and it cost us,” Coleman said. “Three penalties in a row in the first period is not the recipe, and I’m certainly part of that. I’ll clean it up. I know we all will and we’ll go from there.”
Wild defenseman Olli Maatta said the club found chances but could not afford to spend the night playing from behind.
“If you give up two goals and you’re trying to chase the whole game, it’s tough playing that way,” Maatta said. “Kudos to them for defending hard, but I think we got our chances again and that just showed the way we’ve got to play the full 60.”
Notebook
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Wallstedt finished with 20 saves for Minnesota.
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McCarron credited Sturm for getting the puck across and finding him entering the slot, adding that his line needs more plays of that kind after a quiet recent stretch.
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Kirill Kaprizov’s seven-game point run ended. He had recorded eight goals and six assists during the streak, including goals in four straight games.
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Spurgeon returned after missing four games with an upper-body injury and logged 19:19, putting four shots on goal.
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Maatta played 14:16 after a three-game absence caused by an upper-body injury.
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Forward Maxim Shabanov was scratched shortly before the game and is listed day to day with an upper-body injury.
For Cooley, the closing minutes were a chance to repay the work Calgary had done in front of him all night.
“The last five or 10 minutes, I was like, ‘Okay, now it’s my turn,’” Cooley said. “The guys battled so hard for me. I wanted to battle for them.”
