Flames vs. Wild: Devin Cooley Walls Off Minnesota After Calgary's Power Play Strikes Twice

The net was empty at the other end, the Wild had six skaters buzzing around his crease, and Devin Cooley decided the evening belonged to him. "The last five or 10 minutes where I was like, 'Okay, now it's my turn. Like to return the favor a little bit,'" the Calgary goalie said afterward. Favor returned, with interest.

Cooley stopped 38 of 39 shots and the Calgary Flames turned two first-period power plays into a 2-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night at Scotiabank Saddledome. Aydar Suniev and Joel Farabee scored just over three minutes apart with the man advantage, Michael McCarron got one back early in the third, and Cooley handled the rest.

Special Teams Write the First Act

The recipe for beating Calgary was simple: stay out of the box. Minnesota could not follow it, and the Flames cashed in twice.

The first one came at 10:49. With Blake Coleman in the box for tripping, Adam Klapka worked the puck from behind the net into the slot, and Suniev ripped a wrist shot into the top corner over Jesper Wallstedt's glove. It was Suniev's third goal of the season and, according to the AP, the first power-play goal of his career.

Farabee doubled it at 14:06 on the next man advantage. Morgan Frost fired, Wallstedt made the first stop, and Farabee jammed the rebound home past defenseman Jared Spurgeon, who had dropped back to help his goalie. Matt Coronato drew the second assist. It was Farabee's first goal of the season.

"He's had a lot of chances," Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. "As long as the chances are coming for him, he's a bit of a streaker scorer, so we're anticipating this will hopefully open some floodgates for him."

The second period was scoreless, which suited the home team just fine.

Minnesota Wakes Up, Cooley Doesn't Blink

The Wild finally solved Cooley at 4:39 of the third. Nico Sturm slid a pass across to McCarron, who wound up from the right circle and buried a slap shot to make it 2-1, with Jonas Brodin picking up the second assist. It was McCarron's first goal of the season.

"'Sturmy' made a heck of a play getting it over and finding me coming down the slot, so we need more of that," McCarron said.

From there, the third period turned into a siege. Minnesota piled up shots, and late in regulation Wallstedt went to the bench for an extra attacker. The box score has him at 57:57 of ice time, which means he spent a little over two minutes on the bench while Minnesota threw everything it had at the net. They got nothing past Cooley.

The Star: Devin Cooley, Bouncer

The line: 39 shots, 38 saves, a .974 save percentage, and a full 60 minutes. Cooley's previous start was a 34-save effort in a 3-2 home win over Carolina on Sunday, and NHL.com noted this was his second straight victory.

Cooley spread the credit around. "I'm really glad I was able to make some saves, because the guys tonight were just unbelievable," he said. "Everyone was blocking shots. The power play was great. The penalty kill was great. It was just incredible."

His coach was more direct about who carried the final 20 minutes. "In the third period, our goaltender was our best player," Huska said.

Up front, Farabee logged 18:51 and Coronato 17:18, while Frost picked up an assist and won seven faceoffs while losing five. Suniev scored in just 11:40 of ice time. On the other side, Wallstedt was solid, stopping 20 of 22 for a .909 save percentage, and both goals he allowed came on Minnesota penalties. That is a tough way to lose a goaltending duel.

Turning Point: The Parade to the Penalty Box

This game was decided in the first period, and the Wild knew it. Both teams had four power plays. Calgary scored on two of them. Minnesota scored on none.

"That's two games in a row we lost the special teams battle and it cost us," Coleman said. "You've got guys sitting on the bench that need to be on the ice. Three penalties in a row in the first period is not the recipe and I'm certainly part of that. I'll clean it up. I know we all will and we'll go from there."

Stats That Matter

• 39-22: Minnesota's edge in shots. The Wild nearly doubled up Calgary and still lost.
• 2-for-4 vs. 0-for-4: The power plays. That was the whole ballgame.
• .974: Cooley's save percentage on 39 shots.
• 30-23: Minnesota's edge in faceoffs (56.6 percent). The Wild had the puck plenty; they just could not finish.
• 12-9: Calgary's edge in blocked shots, which backs up Cooley's point about the skaters in front of him.

What It Means

Calgary started this season 0-5-0, the kind of opening that has fans checking draft lottery odds before Halloween. The Flames are now 3-6-0 with six points and have won three of their past four, including two straight home wins to start a four-game homestand. They did this one without captain Mikael Backlund, listed by the AP as day to day with an upper-body injury, and Ben Jones, a former Wild center, made his season debut for Calgary. Detroit visits on Saturday night.

Minnesota falls to 6-3-2 with 14 points and has lost the first two games of a five-game road trip, the opener a 4-3 overtime loss in Edmonton on Tuesday. The split is stark: the Wild are 4-0-0 at home and 2-3-2 on the road. NHL.com noted Kirill Kaprizov's seven-game point streak and four-game goal streak both ended here. Spurgeon returned after missing four games with an upper-body injury and put four shots on goal, and forward Maxim Shabanov was a late scratch. The trip continues Saturday night in Seattle.

"We battled back and gave ourselves a chance, but ultimately, it wasn't good enough," Wild coach John Hynes said.

Groundhog Day Is Over in Calgary

For the first five games of the season, the Flames were stuck in their own version of Groundhog Day: wake up, lose, repeat. Now they have a goalie who has won back-to-back starts with 34 and 38 saves, and a power play that made Minnesota pay for its trips to the box.

It will not fix a 3-6-0 record overnight. But Huska summed up the night neatly: "When you find yourself in situations when you're really pushing for a win, sometimes you take on a little water, and when we did, he was unreal."

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press and NHL.com; postgame quotes as reported by NHL.com.