Havlat, Backstrom lead Wild to 2-1 win over Flames
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Martin Havlat scored his first goal of the season to break a third-period tie, and Niklas Backstrom made 33 saves in the Minnesota Wild's 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Friday night.
Cal Clutterbuck also scored to help Minnesota finish 3-1-1 on a five-game homestand.
Rene Bourque scored a first-period goal and Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 21 shots for Calgary. The Flames have lost four games in a row.
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Havlat scored at 4:20 of the third period, taking a pass from Matt Cullen, kicking the puck to his stick and sneaking a shot past Kiprusoff to make it 2-1.
Havlat, who scored 18 goals last season for the Wild and 29 goals in 2008-09 for Chicago, hadn't scored since March 29 — a stretch of 18 games. The winner also came a little more than a week after his agent Allan Walsh publicly criticized Wild coach Todd Richards for his use of Havlat.
Backstrom improved to 6-3-2, making 12 third-period saves. With just more than 2 minutes to play, Backstrom made a nice save on a shot that was tipped in the slot by Calgary's David Moss.
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While Kiprusoff has more victories against the Wild than any other goalie, Minnesota has won six of seven against the Flames since the beginning of the 2009-10 season.
Bourque opened the scoring for Calgary at 10:45 of the first period. His shot from on top of the right circle beat Backstrom over the shoulder. Since missing two games with an upper-body injury believed to be a concussion, Bourque has seven goals and three assists in nine games.
Clutterbuck tied it with 4:30 left in the first. After Minnesota's Justin Falk held the puck in the offensive zone, the Wild's Andrew Brunette found Clutterbuck just to the right of the goal.
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NOTES: The game marked the beginning of a stretch in which the Flames will play nine of 11 games on the road. ... Calgary forward Tim Jackman, who grew up in the Minneapolis suburbs, got into a first-period fight with the Brad Staubitz. ... Forwards Cody Almond and Matt Kassian made their NHL debuts for Minnesota after being called up from Houston of the American Hockey League.