Flames Visual Recap 25: Poor team performance leads to setback against Minnesota

The Calgary Flames faced off against the Minnesota where the biggest news of the day came hours before puck drop: Jacob Markstrom would be week-to-week after fracturing his finger during practise. This meant the Flames’ goaltending duo would be Daniel Vladar and Dustin Wolf for the foreseeable future.

In the first game without Markstrom, the Flames opted to go with Vladar in net. Things did not go well for him as he was scored on on the first shot he faced. The puck went in and out and play continued, but the play was stopped and the goal was awarded. Vladar was promptly chased early in the second after allowing two more goals in the first 90 seconds, and in came Wolf to roaring applause in the Saddledome. This would be Wolf’s first appearance in net at home this season, and the Flames crowd was absolutely behind the goaltender from start to finish.

Sometimes a goalie change will spark a team to turn things around, but the Flames didn’t see any major changes to their pressure or tenacity on the puck, but they were eventually able to score to get back into the game. Unfortunately, they would be unable to tie it at all as the Wild got away with this one. It was an ugly game for the Flames and no comeback magic was to be had.

Of major notes on the rookies: Despite ceding two goals, Wolf continues to look great in net and his overall poise in the crease is outstanding. Ilya Solovyov didn’t have good shifts to start the game, but he managed to get an assist on Connor Zary‘s goal for his first NHL point. Martin Pospisil was a healthy scratch after being held pointless in his last seven games.

Game events

Goals

Goal	Assists	Time	Score
Marcus Foligno	Matt Boldy	1:26 \| 1st	MIN 1 – 0 CGY
Kirill Kaprizov	Marco Rossi, Mats Zuccarello	0:45 \| 2nd	MIN 2 – 0 CGY
Matt Boldy	Unassisted	1:30 \| 2nd	MIN 3 – 0 CGY
Mikael Backlund	MacKenzie Weegar, Rasmus Andersson	6:51 \| 2nd	MIN 3 – 1 CGY
Matt Boldy (PPG)	Kirill Kaprizov, Jared Spurgeon	13:58 \| 2nd	MIN 4 – 1 CGY
Connor Zary	Ilya Solovyov, Nazem Kadri	1:37 \| 3rd	MIN 4 – 2 CGY
Joel Eriksson Ek	Marcus Johansson	6:49 \| 3rd	MIN 5 – 2 CGY