ST. PAUL, Minn. – Martin Havlat had a goal and an assist and Niklas Backstrom stopped 34 shots as the Minnesota Wild beat the Calgary Flames 4-1 on Monday night.
Kyle Brodziak, John Madden and Cal Clutterbuck also scored for the Wild, who beat the Flames for the second time in three nights. Backstrom is 7-1-1 in his past nine games against the Flames.
The Wild hadn't scored a power-play goal in more than a month but had two in the third period on Monday.
Minnesota led 1-0 early before Olli Jokinen tied it for Calgary in the second. The Wild were lucky to have given up a single goal — the Flames outshot Minnesota 13-3 in the period, which ended with the crowd booing the home team as it failed to control the puck on its first power play of the game.
But on their second attempt with the man advantage, the Wild regained the lead on Havlat's eighth goal of the season. With a clear cut to the net, Havlat picked up a loose puck in the corner and backhanded it over Miikka Kiprusoff's shoulder to make it 2-1.
Minnesota padded its lead nearly 4 minutes later when Madden's shot from along the goal line hit off Kiprusoff's stick into the net. Clutterbuck added an empty-netter with 45 seconds to play.
Kiprusoff, who has 24 career victories against the Wild, made 19 saves for Calgary.
Brodziak scored his second goal in three games to put Minnesota up 1-0 at 9:18 of the first. After grabbing a rebound off the newly recalled Marco Scandella's shot from the left circle, Brodziak whipped it around Kiprusoff to give the Wild an early lead.
The Flames tied it early in the second when Jokinen beat Backstrom's glove off a pretty feed from Jarome Iginla.
NOTES: Jokinen got his fourth point in the last three games. ... Despite a late-arriving crowd slowed by another Minnesota snowstorm, the Wild announced an attendance of 18,315. That's officially a sellout, although there were plenty of empty seats.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.