The Minnesota Wild beat the Calgary Flames 5-3 last night—which should take some of the sting away from this—but still, six ounces of frozen, vulcanized rubber to the face can never feel good. Late in the second period in Calgary, the Flames clawed back into the game, taking a fairly circuitous route to get there: a wrist shot, a deflection, and a bounce off an opponent's face.Calgary quickly turned the puck up ice with Matt Stajen drawing two defenders as he entered the zone before laying it off for David Jones. Minnesota defenseman Mike Reilly just got his stick in the way as Jones flicked a wrist shot. Normally this is good, the shot has been directed away from goal and hopefully another defenseman can collect the puck. Unfortunately, it was directed into Matt Dumba's face and he didn't so much collect the puck as create a suitable angle to re-direct it into the back of the net. Minnesota netminder Devan Dubnyk could barely stand it.
Jones was perfectly happy to take the goal, however; it's been a while.
"I definitely haven't scored one like that," said Jones, who hadn't scored in 14 games. "It felt good to finally get one. It's been a little while, so hopefully it can lead to a little more offense from our line."