{"id":436465,"date":"2026-01-30T15:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T15:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/436465\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T15:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T15:46:15","slug":"3-takeaways-from-the-wilds-4-1-win-over-the-flames-the-hockey-writers-minnesota-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/436465\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Takeaways From the Wild’s 4-1 Win Over the Flames – The Hockey Writers – Minnesota Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Minnesota Wild hosted the Calgary Flames on Thursday night, Jan. 29, in the final game of their recent four-game homestand before<\/a> another quick one-game road trip. They were coming off a big comeback shootout win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday<\/a>, Jan. 27, and looked to build off that momentum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They remained without Zach Bogosian,<\/a> but it was reported earlier that he may return in their road game on Saturday, Jan. 31, while Jonas Brodin is out for 6-8 weeks<\/a>. Filip Gustavsson was back in the net, and the game started out in favor of the Wild. They held on to get the win despite the Flames\u2019 efforts to get back in. In this article, we\u2019ll look at a few takeaways, starting with the unexpected goal scorers. <\/p>\n

Wild\u2019s Unexpected Goal Scorers<\/p>\n

While every player on the Wild roster is capable of scoring goals, or they wouldn\u2019t be in the NHL, there are obviously players who score more than others. The Wild had two players step up who aren\u2019t necessarily known for their scoring, at least not yet, in the first period that got them going. Danila Yurov got the Wild on the board first, and although he\u2019s expected to score goals, he is still a rookie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That goal was his eighth of the season and was his 20th point. That goal gave the Wild some much-needed momentum, and then Hinostroza got on the board. He\u2019s a player who\u2019s not known for scoring goals, but when he does, it\u2019s an added bonus, and that was his goal against the Flames. It was an almost rink-wide aerial pass from Jake Middleton <\/a>that Hinostroza gloved right at the blue line, broke away from the defense, and sniped it in. It was his third of the year and gave the Wild a tiny bit of breathing room as it extended their lead to 2-0.\u00a0While the Wild did win 4-1, those two goals were huge in getting the win. <\/p>\n

\"DanilaMinnesota Wild forward Danila Yurov celebrates his goal (Nick Wosika-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah I feel like it was just perfect, I didn\u2019t have to change my speed or everything, it just, he put it right up there, and I caught it right at the blue line I think and one of my feet was onsides so I was trying to think about where it was a little bit and look in my peripherals and try to see where their D is, where the blue line is and focus on the puck so in the moment you\u2019re not thinking about anything but making the play and lucky enough we were onsides and I was able to put it in there,\u201d said Hinostroza about Middleton\u2019s pass and his finish to get the goal. <\/p>\n

Wild\u2019s Gustavsson Solid <\/p>\n

The Wild have been getting great goaltending<\/a> for the majority of the season, with a bad game here and there. Against the Flames, Gustavsson stood tall, and while he faced quite a few shots, his teammates did a great job of limiting the dangerous shots. The ones that did get through, he was ready for.\u00a0There were a few close calls, but Gustavsson got there just in time, and he was once again strong on the penalty kill, as were his teammates.<\/p>\n

In the third period, the Flames found a way past Gustavsson, but he stepped up and stopped everything that followed. Plus, it didn\u2019t hurt that his teammates found a way to score two more goals and give him the cushion he deserved after making quite a few stops throughout the night. Although he didn\u2019t get the shutout, he made it possible for his team to step up in the final minutes and get the win in regulation. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo, it feels like a pretty easy night, kinda. They had a few chances, a lot of shots makes you just feel more comfortable out there and it didn\u2019t seem too bad,\u201d said Gustavsson about the high number of shots against him and he added about the big stops he did make, \u201cYeah\u2026both the Chicago games and today it didn\u2019t feel like we connected with how we wanted to play and we still walked away with four points and grinded it out there in the end but we\u2019ll sleep on it and get better for the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wild\u2019s Defense Setting Up Goals\u00a0<\/p>\n

While everyone will notice the goal scorers for the night, the ones who will likely get overlooked are the ones who set the goals up. For the Wild against the Flames, five of the eight were defensemen in Jared Spurgeon, Jake Middleton, Brock Faber, Quinn Hughes, and Daemon Hunt. The Wild\u2019s defensemen have been known to get involved in the offense now, and then, this season it\u2019s been moreso especially with the addition of Hughes.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Spurgeon extended his point streak to two games as he scored in their win over the Blackhawks and registered an assist against the Flames. As for Middleton, it had been a couple of weeks since he tallied a point, while Hunt had an assist in their game against the Blackhawks as well. It\u2019s great for the Wild that their defense is getting involved, especially if the forwards are having trouble getting through.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, there was a lot of ill-advised plays in the neutral zone that we did a handful of times this evening, but no, that one worked out and got the job done,\u201d said Middleton about his aerial pass to Hinostroza that ended up being the game-winning goal, and continued, \u201cIt\u2019s the NHL, right? They\u2019re an NHL team, they play well defensively, they\u2019re structured, I think we gave them a lot as well\u2026they didn\u2019t really earn it against us, we gave it to them, something we gotta clean up moving forward.\u201d <\/p>\n

Related: Wild Adding Quinn Hughes Has Paid Off in More Ways Than One<\/a><\/p>\n

The Wild will head on the road to face the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday, Jan. 31, for a late-night battle. They\u2019ll have one more home game on Monday, Feb. 2, and one more road game to follow before they are off for the Olympic break<\/a>. Hopefully, they can finish these last few games on a high note.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Wild hosted the Calgary Flames on Thursday night, Jan. 29, in the final game of their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[895,26,5294,8478,535,896,5,4,1120],"class_list":["post-436465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary-flames","tag-calgary","tag-calgary-flames","tag-calgaryflames","tag-danila-yurov","tag-filip-gustavsson","tag-flames","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-vinnie-hinostroza"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115984832668469898","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}