Tkachuk, Toffoli lead Flames past Wild for franchise-record 11th straight home win
Calgary (31-14-6) also won 11 games on home ice from Nov. 15 to Dec. 27, 2015
Forty-eight hours after their 10-game winning streak came to a crashing halt in a 7-1 drubbing in Vancouver, Calgary gave up a goal on the first shot on Saturday, but they refused to let it phase them.
Matthew Tkachuk and Tyler Toffoli each scored twice and added an assist as the Flames responded to the early deficit with the next five goals in a 7-3 win over the Minnesota Wild that tied a franchise record with 11 consecutive wins on home ice.
"You look at tonight, them scoring the first goal, there is no letdown, if anything, we pushed back even harder," said Toffoli. "One of the things that this team takes pride in is bouncing back and bouncing back after a tough night in Vancouver, too."
It was Frederick Gaudreau who got the Wild off to a fast start on a deflection 1:36 into the game. But Calgary took over from that point, scoring the next three goals in outshooting the visitors 18-4 in the first.
Calgary tied it at 10:29 when Toffoli snuck in from the blue line undetected and one-timed a perfect cross-ice pass from Rasmus Andersson.
Toffoli then helped set up Tkachuk's go-ahead goal on the man advantage just over a minute later and the Flames had a lead they would not relinquish.
"It's exactly what we were expecting and more. Big goals," said Tkachuk, on what Toffoli has brought to the team. "That goal tonight, I know we scored seven, but that first one was huge to get the momentum back. It was a great shot."
WATCH l Coleman's short-handed breakaway goal helps Flames defeat Wild:
Toffoli has four goals in six games since joining Calgary in a trade with Montreal.
"It's definitely one of the closer groups that I've ever kind of been a part of," Toffoli said. "So, it's been fun. Winning's fun. So hopefully we can just keep doing that."
Flames coach Darryl Sutter knew exactly what Calgary was getting, having coached Toffoli when he broke into the NHL with the Los Angeles Kings. They won the Stanley Cup together in 2014.
"He's a real consistent player, and if you look at it, he's going to score every three games, he's done that his whole career and he's done it at critical times, meaning playoff time," said Sutter.
Down 4-1, the back-breaker for the Wild came with 41 seconds remaining in the second when they surrendered a short-handed goal to Blake Coleman, who got breakaways 15 seconds apart, making good on the second, squeezing a shot through Kaapo Kahkonen's pads.
"Right now, we just seem to be a little bit fragile when we get scored on," said Wild winger Marcus Foligno. "When teams kind of score on us, we seem to be a little bit down and out. So that's not us. We know that and we've got to be more physical, sandpaperish. It starts with me. And we weren't good at all tonight."
Erik Gudbranson and Andrew Mangiapane, with his team-leading 27th, also scored for Calgary (31-14-6), who have outscored teams 53-15 during the home win streak. The Flames also won 11 straight home games from Nov. 15 to Dec. 27, 2015.
"We want to be known as a team that when we get the lead, can shut a team down and push them right out of our building," said Tkachuk.
Nick Bjugstad and Kirill Kaprizov also scored for Minnesota (31-16-3), which has lost five of their last six, including three straight losses in regulation for the first time all season.
"We definitely got to look ourselves in the mirror," said Bjugstad. "Lost a few games on this road trip that are pretty disappointing on our part. I think we all know what we can do. That's why it's frustrating."
Minnesota returns home after picking up just two points on their four-game Canadian road trip. The same two teams meet again on Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minn.
"They're going to look in the mirror at some point and realize that's not good enough," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "I guess the best thing possibly is we play them in two nights. If we have that type of effort, we'll get embarrassed again."
Jacob Markstrom made 22 saves for Calgary to improve to 24-11-5.
Kahkonen had 28 stops in a second consecutive start for Minnesota. He fell to 12-5-2.
In a scary incident, Calgary lost Oliver Kylington at 11:17 of the third period when he had to be helped off the ice. With Ryan Hartman holding onto Kylington's arm, the defenceman got spun around and went flying into the end boards with his head and neck hitting first.
But Darryl Sutter said post-game that he was "fine."
WATCH l Flames' Kylington helped off ice after crashing head first into boards:
