The Minnesota Wild and their air-tight goaltending will look to continue their hot streak when they visit the last-place Calgary Flames on Thursday.
Having carded a 1-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday to open a four-game road trip, the Wild are riding a 10-0-2 run in which they have smothered the opposition.
Minnesota has held opponents to two or fewer goals in all but two of those contests, and the team’s goaltending duo of Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt have authored shutouts in five of those outings.
Wallstedt has recorded a shutout in four of his last six games, including the Edmonton victory, when he recorded 33 saves.
“It’s been so much fun to the start of the year,” said the 2021 first-round draft choice. “I know what it’s like to not have so much fun, so I appreciate every day that is, and I’m having a lot of fun right now.”
Wallstedt is the fourth rookie goalie in league history and first in 87 years to post four shutouts in a six-game stretch, joining Frank Brimsek (1938-39 Boston Bruins), Dolly Dolson (1928-29 Detroit Cougars) and Tiny Thompson (1928-29 Bruins).
Wallstedt’s performance this season (8-0-2 record with a 1.74 goals-against average and .944 save percentage) is amazing, but Gustavsson has also been effective. Gustavsson has held the opposition to two or fewer goals in six of his last eight starts and posted a 5-1-2 mark after he and the team struggled to find their footing in October.
“No matter how we play, they always show up,” defenseman Brock Faber said. “To have two goalies like that, it makes our job really easy, both physical and mentally. The confidence they have back there just bleeds throughout the whole lineup.”
Jonas Brodin recorded the lone goal of the game in Edmonton. Kirill Kaprizov leads the Wild with 17 goals, fourth most in the NHL entering Wednesday night’s games.
The Flames return home after ending a five-game road swing with a dud of a performance in Tuesday’s 5-1 loss to the Nashville Predators.
Calgary, which has one win in four games and sits last in the league standings, was outclassed from the drop of the puck and needed a late power-play goal to prevent being shut out in two consecutive outings.
“We didn’t play a game that we’re going to be pleased with, that’s for sure,” coach Ryan Huska said. “I don’t think we had a lot of speed to our game, and maybe more so speed when we didn’t have the puck. We were really slow to work to support tonight all over the place.”
Morgan Frost scored the man-up goal for the Flames, while Nazem Kadri earned an assist. The 35-year old Kadri leads Calgary with 22 points (five goals, 17 assists).
Calgary, the NHL’s only squad with a sub-.400 winning percentage, will play its next four games at home.
“We know we can play better, but we’re going to go home and bounce back. …,” captain Mikael Backlund said. “Now we mentally prepare for Minnesota, have a good homestand and go from there.”
Although a playoff position is a long shot at best with only a little more than one-third of the campaign completed, the Flames are not that far out of a postseason spot — six points going into Wednesday’s action.
The chance to gain any traction is now, with play 11 of their next 14 games at the Saddledome.
“We have to do a good job of taking care of the time we have to spend at home here the next little while,” Huska said. “Turn the page and make sure we’re much better against Minnesota.”
–Field Level Media
