Wild beat Flames 3-0: "We were patient again"

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) - Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy each had a goal and an assist, and Filip Gustavsson stopped 31 shots for his second shutout of the season as the Minnesota Wild beat the Calgary Flames 3-0 on Saturday night for their fourth straight win.

Marcus Foligno also scored for the Wild, who earned a point for their ninth straight game (8-0-1). Gustavsson improved to 6-0-2 in his last eight starts while allowing only 11 goals in that stretch.

"It didn't feel that great today," Gustavsson said. "It was bouncy. Every time I went out and played the puck with my stick it didn't go the way I wanted. It was a little bit of a funky game. ... The pucks hit me so you kind of get into a rhythm. I don't know, it was a good game anyways."

Jacob Markstrom finished with 29 saves as he lost his fifth straight start (0-4-1) for the Flames. Calgary has lost five straight (0-3-2).

"It's two games in a row we got really good goaltending," Flames coach Darryl Sutter said. "Goaltending gave us a chance to win but i think we got very little (scoring) for him, especially our top guys."

The Flames, 1-5-1 in their last seven at home, were booed by the home crowd throughout the closing minutes.

"When you lose, I'd boo, too," Sutter said. "I don't think they're booing the team. ... Our top players got to be better players, that's for sure."

Calgary trails Winnipeg by seven points for the second wild card in the Western Conference.

Eriksson Ek tipped Marcus Johansson's deflection of Boldy's long shot from the high slot to give the Wild a 1-0 lead with 5:08 left in the first.

"I wasn't sure if it was deflected off me or not," Eriksson said. "We win as a team and we lose like a team."

Foligno made it 2-0 with 6:11 left in the third. Frederick Gaudreau's shot from the left side went over the crossbar and hit the top of the netting and bounced back toward Markstrom and Foligno reached behind the goalie and swatted the puck in out of the air for his fifth.

"We were patient again," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "It's nice to play with the lead and when we got the lead we didn't have to do anything as far as cheating the game. We stayed real patient ... We were fortunate to get a couple more."

Boldy capped the scoring with 3 1/2 minutes left as he got Eriksson Ek's backhand feed from behind the goal line and fired it in past Markstrom for his 17th.

"It was kind of flat on our end from start to finish," Calgary's Milan Lucic said. "At this point of the year you should be excited and have a lot of energy to play every single night. THat's on us as individuals and us as a team. ... Energy is something we have to create within."

CLOSE GAMES

The Flames lead the NHL in one-goal losses with a combined 24 between regulation time (11) and overtime (13). The Wild lead the NHL with 18 one-goal wins.

UP NEXT

Wild: Host Calgary on Tuesday night.

Flames: At Dallas on Monday night to open a two-game trip.