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Rolston, Gaborik lead Wild to sixth straight win

Mar 18, 2007 - 5:35 AM CALGARY, Alberta (Ticker) -- Thanks to Brian Rolston's timely goal, the Minnesota Wild are returning home with huge smiles.

Rolston snapped a third-period tie and Marian Gaborik added a goal and an assist as the Wild won their sixth straight game with a 4-2 victory over the Calgary Flames.

In equaling its longest winning streak of the campaign set from October 5-18, Minnesota (42-24-7) remained one point behind the Vancouver Canucks (43-23-6) for first place in the Northwest Division race.

"That was a huge game for us," Wild right wing Pavol Demitra said. "Every time we play here, they come on strong. They're a hard-working team. We slowed down a bit in the first 20 minutes, but especially the last 20, we played great hockey, got good bounces, and we scored goals."

"As soon as the legs were there, we turned things around," Minnesota left wing Stephane Veilleux said. "We got more chances and created more things. It was a great effort by our goaltending. It was a good team win for us. We kind of turned things around after the first goal."

Rolston put the Wild in front for good at 4:47 of the third period when his slap shot from the left faceoff circle got between goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff's pads and trickled over the goal line.

"Anytime I get time to shoot, I'll try it," Rolston said. "Some were saying on our bench that it dropped a little bit, which could have been the case."

Gaborik, who scored his 25th goal in the first period, set up Demitra's insurance tally with 5:01 to play as the Wild raised their road mark to 15-3-2 since January 9.

"We follow our system," Demitra said. "It (has) been working for many years. That's how we win games. We've got a good solid four lines."

Alex Tanguay snapped a 1-1 tie for Calgary at 4:32 of the second period when his one-timer from the slot beat goaltender Niklas Backstrom to the stick side. It was his 21st goal of the season.

"Last time I looked, we were eight points up on Colorado," Tanguay said after Calgary lost for the fifth time in six games. "I don't think we need to push any panic button yet. The last two hockey years, the eighth-place team went onto the Stanley Cup final. We are confident in our group. There's no reason to start doubting ourselves."

Minnesota answered roughly four minutes later as Veilleux redirected Keith Carney's shot from inside the blue line past Kiprusoff's right pad.

"It was a good play," Veilleux said. "It went to the point and I went to do a screen in front of the puck. It hit my stick at the same time as the skate of the Calgary guy."

Backstrom made 19 saves and extended his personal winning streak to five for Minnesota, which swept its three-game road trip.

Daymond Langkow opened the scoring just 32 seconds into the game and Kiprusoff stopped 22 shots for the Flames (37-25-10), who are five points behind the seventh-place Dallas Stars (42-24-5) in the West.

"We didn't take enough pucks to the net," Calgary coach Jim Playfair said. "We didn't put enough there and go there consistently. But I thought we controlled the play in the offensive zone enough to create more scoring chances."