Three takeaways as Flames continue turnaround with big win over Wild

When the final buzzer sounded on Thursday night, Devin Cooley lay on his back on the ice and thrust his hands triumphantly into the air.

There’d been a split second where he hadn’t been sure if he’d stopped the Minnesota Wild’s final, desperate attempt to tie the game.

But after a hectic final five minutes of the third period, Cooley realized the job was done and the Flames had secured a 2-1 win over one of the NHL’s best teams.

“It was so chaotic and I was really glad I was able to make some saves because the guys tonight were just unbelievable,” Cooley explained. “Guys were blocking shots, the power-play was great, the penalty-kill was great, it was just incredible, we were scoring.

“It was like the last five or 10 minutes where I was like ‘Ok, now it’s my turn to return the favour.’ The guys battled so hard for me, I wanted to battle for them. It was just an awesome team win.”

Cooley was outstanding against the Wild in his second straight start after being equally excellent in the Flames’ win over the defending Stanley Cup-champion Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday. He stopped 36 shots and stood on his head in the final frame as the Wild poured on the pressure.

It will be no surprise if he starts on Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings and for the time being, at least, looks like he’s the Flames’ go-to No. 1 option between the pipes over Dustin Wolf.

When the Flames were struggling and getting blown out every game in the first week-and-a-half of the season, it was obvious that they needed one of their goalies to step up and start making saves.

As of right this second, that’s been Cooley.

“For two periods I thought we were really good and did a lot of good things against a really good team and in the third period, our goaltender was our best player,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “When you find yourself in situations where you’re really pushing for a win, sometimes you take on a little water and when we did, he was unreal.”

Here are three takeaways from Thursday’s win:

This has been a story for a couple games now, but the Flames’ power-play has really started to click.

They went 2-for-4 against the Wild, with goals from Aydar Suniev and Joel Farabee serving as the difference in the game. They had lots of other opportunities to score, too, and suddenly look a real threat every time they’re on the man advantage.

“They’re getting in the zone clean again to start with, but I think it’s their puck movement overall,” Huska said. “We’ve had a few penalty kills that are really aggressive over the last little while and in order to beat an aggressive penalty kill you have to move the puck typically three clean passes in order to break them down.”

So far this season, the Flames have converted on 6-of-23 power-play opportunities, That’s a 26.1% conversion rate, which is fifth-best in the NHL. It’s been the key to their turnaround that’s seen them win three-of-four games after losing their first five.

Cooley’s post-game media availabilities have become must-see-TV, whether it’s for his theories on the conscious vs. the unconscious or any of the other sometimes-wacky approaches he takes to high-level performance between the pipes.

He’s got every right to be feeling confident right now, though, and whatever he’s doing, it’s working and giving the Flames a chance to turn their season around.

“Everyone counted us out, and we went head-to-head with two of the top teams in the league these past two games and we’ve won and it’s been incredible,” Cooley said, “I already know the DMs I’m going to be getting from Team Tank: Stop winning, idiot.“

The last four games have dramatically changed the narrative around the Flames, and rightfully so. They looked like a completely different team on Thursday compared to the group that struggled coming out of the gate.

There’s a lot of season left and there will be plenty of ups and downs, but it’s worth noting that they’re actually well ahead of their pace from last season.

In the first nine games of 2025-26, the Flames went 1-7-1 and picked up only three points. Through nine games this year, they’ve gone 3-6-0 and have doubled their total from a year ago with six points.

It’s not all doom and gloom and they’re doing it with a lot of young players in the lineup. Captain Mikael Backlund was out with an injury on Thursday and a lot of Flames players had to step up in his absence.

That they managed it should be a boost for every Flames fan.