Suter Carries Wild To Win 4-2 Over Flames

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Ryan Suter redeemed himself nicely after taking a penalty that helped Calgary take the lead in the third period.

Suter already had an assist when he got the tying goal and set up the go-ahead score to rally the Minnesota Wild to a 4-2 win over the Flames on Saturday night.

"Whenever you can help bail yourself out, it's nice," said Suter, whose long wrist shot at 10:33 eluded Mike Smith, who was partially screened by his own defenseman, and tied the score 2-2.

"He kinda used (Travis Hamonic) as a screen in front of me and made a pretty good shot," Smith said.

Less than two minutes later, Suter set up fellow defenseman Jared Spurgeon, who wired a 40-foot slap shot over Smith's shoulder and under the crossbar to give the Wild the lead.

"There was a little bit (of room)," Spurgeon said. "Our scouting staff did a good job about telling us where to shoot. I just tried to shoot it at hard as I could."

Chris Stewart and Daniel Winnik also scored for Minnesota, and Alex Stalock stopped 35 shots — including 18 in the first period.

Sean Monahan and Kris Versteeg scored for Calgary, which totaled just three goals while losing three straight at home. Smith finished with 28 saves.

"It's not good enough. We need to be good here," said Versteeg. "That's something all the best teams in the league do, they have really good home records."

Versteeg put Calgary ahead 2-1 just 43 seconds into the third period on a two-man advantage. Suter's slashing penalty came while they were already killing off a delay of game penalty for coach Bruce Boudreau's unsuccessful offside challenge of the Flames' tying goal with 27.5 seconds left in the second.

That goal, in which Troy Brouwer set up Monahan in the slot for his team-leading fifth goal, made it 1-1.

Smith accepted the blame for the two third-period goals he allowed.

"Ultimately, at the end there, you have to make those saves," said Smith, who has started all eight of Calgary's games. "You're there to stabilize and make those saves that your teammates rely on you to make and in a close game like that, you can't let that in from there."

Stalock, starting in place of the resting Devan Dubnyk, kept the Wild in it in the first as Minnesota was outshot 18-8. He helped slam the door on the Flames in the end too, stopping Monahan from the slot with just over a minute left and also denying Mikael Backlund on the rebound.

"We talked about that coming in. Back to back, any team is going to try and win the game in the first 10 minutes like that," said Stalock, who is 1-0-1. "We weathered the storm, we did a great job, then going into the second period 0-0, we got our legs under us and we took off."

Jaromir Jagr played only four shifts for Calgary, before leaving the game in the first period with a lower-body injury. He did not return.

NOTES: Flames D Brett Kulak made his season debut after sitting the first seven games. C Freddie Hamilton also played for just the second time. Veteran C Matt Stajan was among Calgary's healthy scratches. ... Minnesota C Landon Ferraro (hip flexor) did not play after being injured on Friday in Winnipeg. Called up from Iowa (AHL) to take his place was Cal O'Reilly. Sent down to create room on the roster was D Mike Reilly.

UP NEXT

Wild: Host Vancouver on Tuesday night to open a six-game homestand.

Flames: At Nashville on Tuesday night.

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