Cooley turns aside 36 shots as Calgary Flames edge Minnesota Wild 2-1 at Scotiabank Saddledome

By Vancouver Television Sports Desk

CALGARY -- Devin Cooley made 36 saves and the Calgary Flames defeated the Minnesota Wild 2-1 on Thursday at Scotiabank Saddledome. Cooley earned his second straight win after backing up a 34-save effort from Sunday’s 3-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Flames opened the scoring 10:49 into the first period when Aydar Suniev scored on the power play. According to the game recap, Adam Klapka fed the puck into the slot from behind the net to Suniev, who fired a wrist shot into the top corner over Wild goaltender Jesper Wallstedt’s glove.

Joel Farabee extended Calgary’s lead at 14:06 of the first period with his first goal of the season, again on a power play. Wallstedt stopped Morgan Frost’s initial shot, and Farabee scored on the rebound by putting the puck into the net past Jared Spurgeon, who was attempting to assist his goaltender, as described in the recap.

Cooley continued to limit Minnesota in the early portion of the game, stopping the first 24 shots he faced. In the third period, the Wild finally broke through when Michael McCarron scored at 4:39 on a slap shot from the right circle, cutting the Flames’ lead to 2-1 after taking a pass from Nico Sturm.

The Wild pushed late in the third, outshooting Calgary 17-3 in the period and pulling Wallstedt for an extra attacker. Minnesota was unable to score again, and Cooley remained the final line of defense to preserve the one-goal margin.

For Minnesota, the recap notes that Kirill Kaprizov’s seven-game point streak and four-game goal streak both ended in the game. Jesper Wallstedt stopped 20 shots for the Wild, who were described as having opened a five-game road trip after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday.

The result gave Calgary a strong start to a four-game home stretch, with the Flames beginning the run with two consecutive wins and winning three of their four games heading into Thursday night. Minnesota fell to a 6-3-2 record, while Calgary improved to 3-6-0, according to the recap’s standings included with the game report.