Calgary, AB – Matt Stajan scored twice to lead the Calgary Flames to a 3-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday.
Alex Tanguay scored the other goal while Joey MacDonald made 30 stops for the Flames, who had dropped three of four coming into the game.
Charlie Coyle scored the only goal of the game for the Wild, who had a two- game winning streak snapped. Niklas Backstrom gave up two goals on 26 shots in the loss.
With the score tied in the third, Calgary took a 2-1 lead at the 7:19 mark when a shot from Chris Butler in the high slot made its way to the net and Stajan gathered the rebound before stuffing it in.
"We started turning it into a bit of a track meet, going back and forth and never turned it around from there," Minnesota coach Mike Yeo said.
From there, MacDonald preserved the lead by stopped 11 shots and Stajan sealed the win with an empty-netter in the final seconds of the contest.
"So happy for Matt Stajan, what a great reward for him, played very well and has probably been one of our most consistent players since the start of the year," Calgary coach Bob Hartley said.
Calgary got the first goal of the game when Jay Bouwmeester sent an outlet pass to Tanguay near the Minnesota blueline where he skated on a clean break before slamming the puck in on the forehand just 100 seconds in.
Minnesota, though, tied the game seven minutes later on a rush play that saw Pierre-Marc Bouchard send a perfect saucer pass from the left wing to the front of the net where Coyle pushed it in for his first career goal.
Neither side got on the board in the middle stanza as Backstrom made 11 stops and MacDonald turned away seven.
Game Notes
Calgary hosts Phoenix on Sunday ... Minnesota returns home to face Calgary again on Tuesday ... Minnesota had taken a 2-1 shootout win in Calgary on Feb. 11 ... Both teams went 0-for-2 on the power play.
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