Rate the Flames (2) at Wild (1): Character Win

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The Calgary Flames and Minnesota Wild met in a Saturday afternoon that was anything but pleasant. While there was some expected bad blood boiling over from the last meeting where Mikko Koivu and Mikael Backlund were both injured with questionable hits.

Right off the bat Matthew Tkachuk dropped the mitts with Matthew Dumba.

Mark Giordano would put the Flames ahead 1-0 with a shorthanded goal after a nice play by Mark Jankowski to break out of the zone. It was the second straight game with a shorty for Gio, which is the first time in franchise history that any defender has done that.

Giordano would then fight against Matt Hendricks as it was his turn to answer and then late in the period Ryan Suter and Sam Bennett would square off as well.

Jordan Greenway would tie the game midway through the second period after the Wild killed off a 5-on-3.

Finally in the third period after Bill Peters juggled the lineup, the new look line of Tkachuk, Lindholm, and James Neal would pay big dividends. Neal would bust in on the right wing and backhand a pass into the middle that Tkachuk would grab and beat a screened Dubnyk.

From there the Flames shut the door, including some tremendous saves from David Rittich who made 34 saves on 35 shots in the victory.

Flames move to 21-10-2 on the season and head to St.Louis tomorrow.

by Michael MacGillivray