The Wild was edgier, had the puck more and generally made life on the ice tougher.
After getting trounced Saturday — or as Wild players put it, "embarrassed" — the team played more like the Flames in the rematch.
But Calgary was still better at its own game, cruising 5-1 on Tuesday in front of 16,998 at Xcel Energy Center to sweep the home-and-home and sink the Wild into a four-game slump.
"We liked our response," winger Marcus Foligno said. "But in a way it's still not good enough."
This is the longest dry spell for the Wild since a season-long five-game losing streak Dec. 11-Jan. 1. Overall, the team has dropped six of its past seven games.
"When you go through things like this, it's not always easy to get out of it," Foligno said, "and you're going to get slapped in the mouth before moving on."
The Flames scored twice in the first period, but the stinger was a second-period goal by Elias Lindholm.
Just before then, the Wild finally capitalized to cut its deficit in half.
A backhand pass by Kirill Kaprizov landed on Foligno's stick and, as he was falling to the ice, Foligno one-timed the puck behind Calgary goalie Jacob Markstrom 8 minutes, 32 seconds into the second.
The goal was Foligno's 18th of the season, while Kaprizov picked up his 40th assist, and the sequence shifted momentum in the Wild's favor — as evidenced by Foligno's fist pump and the roar of the crowd.
But only 21 seconds later, the Flames extinguished all of it when Lindholm finished off a Matthew Tkachuk pass for both players' second points of the game.
"Deflating, for sure," Foligno said.
Calgary went on to pad its lead in the third period, converting another power-play goal on a Tyler Toffoli redirect at 33 seconds; the Flames ended up 2-for-3. And with 2:30 to go, Mikael Backlund flung the puck into an empty net.
"The fourth [goal] hurt, too, because we still think we're fine with 3-1," coach Dean Evason said. "We need to clear that puck on the penalty kill, and it ends up in our net."
Markstrom racked up 32 saves and at the other end, Cam Talbot turned aside 22 shots while suffering his fourth consecutive loss.
Although the result was the same, it was clear the Wild heeded the 7-3 debacle on Saturday in Calgary.
Even though the Flames opened the scoring only 1:12 into the first period on a one-timer from Tkachuk on the power play, the Wild was much more engaged than its previous first period and actually outshot Calgary through the initial 20 minutes.
Still, the team was behind, mired in a 2-0 hole after a puck bounced right to Andrew Mangiapane at 12:42 for a slam-dunk deposit.
Trailing, however, didn't dissuade the Wild's physical approach.
Despite being six inches shorter and 38 pounds lighter, Ryan Hartman dropped his gloves for an abbreviated fight with the Flames' Nikita Zadorov. And the Wild dished out a franchise-record 48 hits, eclipsing the 46 recorded in a 6-5 shootout win vs. Chicago on Jan. 9, 2010.
But the team wasn't as effective as Calgary in a more influential category and that's execution.
"We did everything but score," Evason said.
That disparity was amplified on the power play, with the Wild going 0-for-2 after also losing the special-teams battle on Saturday.
"Could have been the difference in the hockey game if obviously our special teams were better," Evason said.
- NHL standings: Conference | Wild Card
Still, the Wild bench boss felt this performance was a step in the right direction — progress that also made clear the level of play the Wild will have to match if it wants to ultimately succeed in a Western Conference that's being spurred on by the likes of the Flames, who have won 12 of their past 13 games.
"They're a good team," captain Jared Spurgeon said. "You can't take that away from them. But at the same time, so are we. We just have to have the confidence in ourselves. Once we get back to that, the game that we're confident in and just consistently playing 60 minutes, we'll be back at it."
