Flames come out on top in 2-1 slugfest against Wild

CALGARY 2 MINNESOTA 1

ST. PAUL, Minnesota — Once the rough stuff was out of the way, the Calgary Flames settled in and clamped down on the Minnesota Wild.

The surprise leaders of the Pacific Division, the Flames have proven this season to be feisty and flexible.

Matthew Tkachuk scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period, backup goalie David Rittich made 34 saves, and the Flames hung on to beat the Wild 2-1 on Saturday.

“It is a good feeling when you go into a game knowing that if you play your way, you can win a game 9-6 and 2-1,” Tkachuk said.

Mark Giordano scored shorthanded in the first period for the Pacific Division-leading Flames, who are 11-2-1 in their last 14 games, with 10 victories in regulation. During this stretch, they’ve won 7-2, 6-3, 6-1, 9-6 and 6-5. They’ve also recently earned 3-2, 2-0 and now 2-1 decisions.

“If we need goals we can get them, but more nights than not we want to play tight checking defensively and create our offence that way,” Giordano said. “We know we can do it.”

Jordan Greenway’s secondperiod goal was all the Wild were able to muster after winning their previous two games against Montreal and Florida by a combined 12-2 margin. They went on a power play with 2:36 left and pulled goalie Devan Dubnyk a few seconds later, but they failed to use the two-man advantage to forge a tie.

With 11:15 remaining, after a turnover by Joel Eriksson set up a rush for the Flames and James Neal’s pass hit a skate and slid backward, Tkachuk snapped the puck through traffic and past Dubnyk’s stick for the lead. Tkachuk is third with 14 goals this season for the Flames, who lead the NHL with 50 third-period goals.

“They’ve got a great team over there. Very fast, quick in transition, high skill,” Greenway said. “So it’s not an easy job.”

Rittich filled for Mike Smith, who was sidelined by an undisclosed injury.

“We’re fortunate to have two guys we can call upon,” coach Bill Peters said.

Nine days after the Flames beat the Wild 2-0 in a tensionfilled game in Calgary, both sides brought their grudges to the ice along with their sticks and skates. Forty seconds after the opening faceoff, Tkachuk fought Minnesota’s Matt Dumba, who levelled Flames centre Mikael Backlund with an open-ice check in the final minute of the matchup on Dec. 6, when Dumba was retaliating for a knee-on-knee hit Wild captain Mikko Koivu took from Giordano earlier in that game.

“It’s good when you see guys standing up for one another, standing up for themselves,” Dubnyk said. “We don’t have a bunch of fighters in here, but we have guys that can take care of themselves.”

Giordano served a two-game suspension. Flames forward Ryan Lomberg was banned for one game for going after Dumba, which also triggered an automatic $10,000 fine for Peters. Koivu (lower body) and Backlund (upper body) each missed their fourth straight game.

Dumba, who leads NHL defencemen with 12 goals, didn’t play in the last two periods. Coach Bruce Boudreau had no update afterward on his condition. After Dumba’s power-play shot was blocked, the Flames went the other way for a 2-on-1 rush that set up the goal by Giordano .

The Flames play at St. Louis today.

MONTREAL 5 OTTAWA 2

MONTREAL — The Montreal Canadiens scored four thirdperiod goals to come from behind and beat the Ottawa Senators 5-2 on Saturday.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Shea Weber, Paul Byron and Jonathan Drouin, into the empty net, scored in the third for the Canadiens (17-11-5). Matthew Peca added a goal in the first.

Carey Price extended his personal winning streak to five games by stopping 16-of-18 shots.

Montreal has defeated Ottawa three times in the past 12 days — all three by the score of 5-2.

Colin White and Mikkel Boedker scored for the Senators (14-16-4), who were coming off a 4-2 win against the Detroit Red Wings on Friday.

The 35-year-old Mike McKenna got the start in relief of starter Craig Anderson. McKenna stopped 42 shots in defeat.

With the game tied 2-2 early in the third, it looked as if Montreal had taken the lead when Phillip Danault put the puck behind McKenna, but the goal was waived off after Artturi Lehkonen was called for embellishment seconds before.

A loud chorus of boos rained down on the Senators, and referees, for the rest of the period.

Those boos turned into deafening cheers when Weber scored the game winner at 10:06, a powerful snap shot from the left face-off dot for his fourth goal of the season.