Matthew Tkachuk and Tyler Toffoli each scored twice and added an assist on Saturday as the Calgary Flames won 7-3 over the Minnesota Wild to tie a franchise record with 11 consecutive wins on home ice.
Erik Gudbranson, Andrew Mangiapane and Blake Coleman also scored for Calgary (31-14-6), which also won 11 games from Nov. 15 to Dec. 27, 2015. The Flames have outscored teams 52-15 during this span.
It was a strong bounce-back performance for the Flames who had their 10-game winning streak snapped in a 7-1 loss in Vancouver on Thursday.
Sitting third in the Central by one point over Nashville, 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.
Jacob Markstrom made 22 saves for Calgary to improve to 24-11-5.
WATCH l Coleman’s short-handed breakaway goal helps Flames defeat Wild:
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Calgary beats Minnesota 7-3 to tie a franchise record with 11 consecutive wins on home ice. 1:21
Kaapo Kahkonen had 28 stops in a second consecutive start for Minnesota. He fell to 12-5-2.
Minnesota got off to a fast start scoring on its first shot 1:36 into the game.
Off a faceoff won in the defensive zone, Kevin Fiala carried the puck up ice and into the Flames end, banking a pass back to Jon Merrill at the blue line whose shot was deflected out of mid-air by Gaudreau.
But Calgary took over from that point, scoring the next three goals in a period in which they outshot the visitors 18-4.
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.
On the power play, Toffoli and Elias Lindholm combined to get the puck to Tkachuk at the side of the net, who on his second whack at it, knocked his 25th goal of the season past Kahkonen.
Before the period ended, the Flames extended the lead to 3-1 on Gudbranson’s long slap shot just inside the goal post.
While tempers started to flare in the second with several post-whistle skirmishes, there wasn’t any offence until 16:44 when a rebound of Andersson’s point shot popped right out to Mangiapane who buried his team-leading 28th goal.
The back-breaker for the Wild came with 41 seconds remaining in the period when they surrendered a short-handed goal to Coleman, who got breakaways 15 seconds apart, making good on the second, squeezing a shot through Kahkonen’s pads.
One concern for Calgary was the condition of defenceman Oliver Kylington, who got injured at11:17 of the third period. With Ryan Hartman holding onto Kylington’s arm – a play in which he was given a minor penalty – Kylington got spun around and went flying into the end boards with his head and neck hitting first.
WATCH l Flames’ Kylington helped off ice after crashing head first into boards:
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Calgary defenceman Oliver Kylington slams into the boards head first while battling for the puck with Minnesota forward Ryan Hartman. Kylington needs to be helped off the ice and Hartman receives a minor penalty for holding. 2:04
He was face down, motionless, for a couple of minutes before being helped off.
Down 5-1, the Wild got goals just over a minute apart from Bjugstad and Kaprizov late in the third, but Tkachuk and Toffoli put the game away with empty netters.
WATCH l Canadian Olympians honoured before start of Wild/Flames game:
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Canadian athletes who participated at Beijing 2022 help sing the national anthem before the Calgary Flames face the Minnesota Wild. 2:33