ST. Justin Jones Jersey . PAUL, Minn. -- Surging into and out of the Olympic break, the Minnesota Wild have created a significant cushion between them and their competitors for the two Western Conference wild-card playoff spots. Thats not enough. With five days before they play next, this was still a game they were worried about -- and had to win. Jared Spurgeon and Zach Parise scored in the third period, and the Wild notched their season-high fifth straight victory, 3-2 over the Calgary Flames on Monday night. "You dont want to go a week without getting any points the way things are, even if you have a cushion," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "The cushion to me is nothing ... because its not about where the people are behind you. To me its much more of a race of what you need to get to." The Wild have 75 points, nine ahead of the cut, but they are off until Saturday. Then they will launch their final stretch of 20 games in 37 days. "I dont think we were at our best. I dont think we played at a level we need to play. But it doesnt matter when you look back at the score," Parise said. Kyle Brodziak also scored, rookie Darcy Kuemper stopped 21 shots during his 15th start in a row, and the Wild raised their record at home to 22-7-2 while playing in front of their fans for the first time in 25 days. Captain Mikko Koivu, back from a 17-game absence due to a broken ankle, skated on the second line with Dany Heatley and Charlie Coyle, apart from Parise for the first time. Parise gave the Wild some insurance by camping in the crease and deflecting a shot past Reto Berra with 5:16 remaining for his 21st goal. Just 77 seconds later, Mark Giordano scored to bring the Flames back within a goal. But Kuemper hung on to raise his record to 11-3-2. Kuemper has played so well in place of Josh Harding and Niklas Backstrom that the Wild might not need to trade for a goalie before the deadline. "The confidence he has now, you can see that, and its just kind of the edge hes playing with thats good to see," Koivu said. "Hes playing winning hockey right now, so obviously thats a huge part of the team." Mikael Granlund had two assists while playing in the NHL for the first time against his brother Markus Granlund, who was called up from the AHL last week by the Flames. After a scoreless, sluggish and penalty-free first period, the pace picked up in the middle frame. Matt Cooke swooped in behind the net to poke the puck away from Berra. Brodziak crept toward the crease to corral the puck and knocked it in for the games first goal. "If you make a mistake the puck ends up in the net. I feel bad for the team because they played really hard tonight and we had a great chance to win," Berra said. Mike Cammalleri, playing perhaps his last game for the Flames with the NHL trade deadline looming on Wednesday, tied it 1-1 in the second period when Koivus pass ricocheted across the slot to him for an easy tap-in that Kuemper had no chance to stop. "No moral victories. We know theyre playing well, but wed like to win," Cammalleri said. With Coyle screening Berra on a power play, Spurgeon sent a slap shot through traffic for the lead. "We had to kind of grind that one out. I had a feeling this was going to be a difficult game for us right from the start," Yeo said. The Flames, buried in the Western Conference playoff race, could make some moves this week. Cammalleri scored for the first time since Jan. 6. He missed nine games during that stretch because of a concussion. "Cammi, you always know that hes going to show up to work," coach Bob Hartley said. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, as a guest of Wild owner Craig Leipold, watched from a suite. Leipold took him earlier in the day to Target Field, where baseballs Twins play, and TCF Bank Stadium, the football home of the University of Minnesota, for tours of possible outdoor game venues. The NHL put on six this season. Bettman has assured the Wild they will be awarded an outdoor game but hasnt committed to a timeframe. NOTES: Flames RW David Jones hurt his upper body in a collision against the boards. "It doesnt look very good," Hartley said. ... Koivu missed 17 games, plus the Olympics for his native Finland, because of a broken ankle. ... Markus Granlund posted his first NHL assist, on Giordanos goal. Chargers Youth Jerseys . A veteran of 16 NHL seasons, Prospals career was highlighted by him ranking fourth in points scored, third in assists and sixth in games played among all Czech Republic born players in NHL history. Chargers Stitched Jerseys . Sure, Josh Browns 45-yard field goal on the third drive of overtime lifted the New York Giants to a 23-20 win over Detroit on Sunday. But the Lions (7-8) dropped themselves out of the NFC North race by losing five of their last six games, blowing fourth-quarter leads in each setback. http://www.authenticchargersshopnfl.com/ .com) - Maria Sharapova reached her 10th career grand slam final after beating Ekaterina Makarova in straight sets at the Australian Open on Thursday.MIAMI - The start of the final round of World Cup qualifying in North and Central America and the Caribbean will be moved up by three months to November 2016.The hexagonal will start Nov. 7-15, 2016, and run through Oct. 2-10, 2017, CONCACAF said Monday. Since the 1998 World Cup, the final round had begun in February or March of the year before the tournament, but CONCACAF had to make a change after FIFA eliminated international fixture dates for February and August 2017.Just six months after the end of the 2014 World Cup, the first qualifying draw for the 2018 tournament will take place Thursday, when CONCACAF determines matchups for its opening two rounds. Qualifying will start March 23-31 with matches involving the 14 lowest-ranked nations in the region as of last August.Seeking its eighth straight World Cup berth, the United States has a bye until the fourth round, when it will be in a four-nation group with double match dates Nov. 7-17, 2015; March 21-29, 2016; and Aug. 29-Sept. 6, 2016. Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago also have byes until the fourth round.The top two nations in each of the three groups advance to the hexagonal. While FIFA has not yet announced the allocation of berths for the 2018 tournament, which will be played in Russia, CONCACAF said the top three nations will qualify and the fourth-place team will advance to an intercontinental playoff. Kyzir White Jersey. .Additional double-match dates for the hexagonal are March 20-28, 2017; June 5-13, 2017; and Aug. 28-Sept. 5, 2017.Competing in the first round will be Anguilla, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, Montserrat, Nicaragua, St. Kitts and Nevis, Turks and Caicos and U.S. Virgin Islands.The seven winners of the home-and-home matchups will be joined in the second round by Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Canada, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname. They will be drawn into 10 home-and-home series to be played June 8-16 this year.Those winners will be joined in the third round by Jamaica and Haiti for six home-and-home series to be played Aug. 31-Sept. 8. Those six teams will advance to the fourth round.Matchups for the third round and groups for the fourth round will be determined at the World Cup qualifying draw July 25 in St. Petersburg, Russia.The CONCACAF representative for the 2017 Confederations Cup could have a quick turnaround to get to that tournament, to be played in Kazan, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sochi from June 17-July 2. The United States will play the winner of this years CONCACAF Gold Cup for a Confederations Cup berth and will earn the berth without a playoff if it wins the tournament. 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