Monahan powers Flames past Wild
CALGARY, Alberta -- Sean Monahan scored two power-play goals and Brian Elliott made 28 saves as the Calgary Flames bounced the Minnesota Wild 5-1 on Wednesday.
Alex Chiasson, Deryk Engelland and Micheal Ferland also scored for Calgary (25-24-3), which won its second straight.
Jason Zucker replied for the Western Conference-leading Wild (33-12-5), who saw their franchise record road point streak end at 14 games.
They still have the NHL's best road record of 16-6-5 and are three points back of the Washington Capitals in the overall standings.
The Flames are in wild-card position, leading St. Louis by two points but the Blues, who fired coach Ken Hitchcock on Wednesday, have three games in hand.
Two quick goals by Monahan and Engelland in the third period were decisive. Monahan's wrist shot through a screen at 6:19 of the third period gave Calgary a 3-1 advantage and Engelland followed with his goal 1:13 later when his wrister from the point got through a crowd in the crease.
Ferland kept the puck on a two-on-one and scored to Devan Dubnyk's glove side with 6:13 left. Dubnyk had 31 saves.
It was Dubnyk's first start since the All-Star break. His league-leading 1.88 goals-against-average was eclipsed by the Flames before the first period was half over.
Chiasson benefited from being stationed in front of the Minnesota goal and Sam Bennett's shot hit him in the midsection and found the net to open the scoring at 4:26.
Monahan made it 2-0 on the power play at 8:09 as he knocked in Johnny Gaudreau's rebound.
Zucker finished off a two-on-one with Mikael Granlund with 12:40 gone in the second period to cut the deficit in half.
NOTES: The Wild traded minor league RW Marc Hagel to the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday. Hagel played 192 games with AHL Iowa but has not seen any action in the NHL. ... Out with injuries for Minnesota were D Vic Bartley (arm) and D Jonas Brodin (fractured finger). ... Flames D Brett Kulak was originally scheduled to play Wednesday but was a late scratch because of illness. Jyrki Jokipakka took his place. C Freddie Hamilton was also scratched. ... Calgary's lone injured player is RW Garnet Hathaway (upper body). ... The Flames play eight of their next 10 games on the road and 13 of 17 games against the Eastern Conference beginning Friday in New Jersey. ... The Wild's 71 points through their first 49 games were the most by any Minnesota-based team in NHL history. The previous best was 58 points in 2002-03.