A "pop fly" assist and goaltending heroics propelled the Wild to an ugly, but crucial, victory despite minimal offensive pressure.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - If you blinked, you didn't miss much. Unless you blinked during two of the Wild's eight shots in the opening two periods.

The Minnesota Wild (31-14-10) didn’t win on volume Thursday night. They won on timing, goaltending, and one perfectly placed pop fly.

Despite managing just eight shots through two periods, the Wild found a way to grind out a regulation win against the Calgary Flames (21-26-6)

The turning point came early, when Jake Middleton lofted a puck into the neutral zone and Vinnie Hinostroza tracked it like an outfielder, catching it cleanly at the blue line before snapping home his first goal in 83 days.

“I didn’t have to change my speed or anything,” Hinostroza said. “He just put it right up there, and I caught it right at the blue line. I was trying to think about where it was a little bit and look at my peripherals and try to see where their D is, where the blue line is, and focus on the puck. In the moment, you're not thinking about anything but making the play. And lucky enough, we were onsides, and I was able to put it in there."

Hinostroza, who nearly played every sport growing up, admitted the moment carried extra emotion.

“It would be crazy to say you don’t get in your head a little bit,” he said. “It’s been a while. Hopefully this starts something.”

had to take another look at this one 👇 #EasyToCelebrate | @Budlight https://t.co/Rk0nSFky6v pic.twitter.com/gERcX96miN
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) January 30, 2026

The Wild added a power-play goal later, and from there, the night belonged to Filip Gustavsson, even if the workload was anything but comfortable.

“Oh, that’s awful,” Gustavsson said when asked if he’d prefer his night or his counterpart’s despite the low shot total. "It’s awful playing games like this because even though we had very low shots, some of the chances were pretty good. So, those nights it’s hard to be a goalie.”

Gustavsson delivered when the Wild needed him, coming up with several key saves while Minnesota leaned heavily on its penalty kill and structure to protect the lead.

He stopped nine shots on the penalty kill.

“It didn’t feel like we connected with how we wanted to play,” Gustavsson said. "We still walked away with four points and grinded it out there in the end. We’ll sleep on it and get better for the next game.”

Head coach John Hynes didn’t sugarcoat the performance.

“No,” Hynes said when asked if he was happy with the way the Wild played in the first two periods. “Were you?”

Hynes credited strong goaltending, special teams, and opportunistic scoring for the result, acknowledging the Wild drifted away from their identity for stretches.

“We got the two goals and then it was perimeter, not strong puck management, not on the inside,” he said. “It wasn't our best game. But we did get very good goaltender, we were good on special teams, and we got opportunistic scoring, and that was the difference."

That included leaning on the power play when even-strength chances were scarce.

“They clog it up,” Matt Boldy said. “There’s not a lot off the rush that’s high danger. So yeah, the power play was nice.”

As for Middleton’s assist, the defenseman downplayed the artistry.

“I was just trying to get it to him,” Middleton said. “However it got there didn’t really matter. Nice catch by Vinnie, so it worked out well.”

📰THE HAT! THE HAT! pic.twitter.com/c7Cj13ikse
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) January 30, 2026

It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t clean. And it certainly wasn’t a Picasso, as Hynes put it.

"Yeah. The one thing I will say is that when you go through 82 games, they’re not all gonna be Picassos, right? But good teams find ways to win, even when you’re not at your best. And as I said, we got the goaltending when we needed it"

Nonetheless, it was two points, no overtime, and one baseball play that turned into a hockey win.

And on a night like that, the Wild will take it but also probably flush this one.

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