SAINT PAUL, Minn. -- The Calgary Flames needed a win -- any kind of win -- to snap out of their weeklong funk. The low-scoring, gritty variety suited them just fine.

An early power-play goal by Johnny Gaudreau held up as the Flames snapped a four-game losing skid, beating the Minnesota Wild 1-0 Tuesday.

Goalie Chad Johnson added 27 saves for his first shutout in 11 months for the Flames, who are struggling to score. Gaudreau's goal was just the fifth that Calgary (6-10-1) managed in the past five games.

"This is how we're going to have to win," Flames first-year coach Glen Gulutzan said. "With the teams in the West and the teams in the league, if we think we can sit and score five or six a night and give up four or five, it's just not going to work that way.

"We have to get comfortable playing these one-goal games and playing the right way, and I saw a lot of that tonight. Getting comfortable taking leads into the third and keeping it close. That's what we're going to have to do to win."

The Wild (8-6-1) got 26 saves from goalie Devan Dubnyk but were blanked for the second time this season.

Minnesota, one of the NHL's best penalty-killing teams this season, got its best early scoring chance while down a man. Wild captain Mikko Koivu had a short-handed breakaway after Minnesota took the first penalty of the game, but his backhander went wide of the net.

Just seconds later, the Flames used that same man advantage to take the lead. Defenseman Mark Giordano's lead pass allowed Gaudreau to split the Wild defense and come in alone on Dubnyk. With the goalie sliding to his left, Gaudreau tucked a backhand shot low and over the line. It was the third goal in the past two games for Gaudreau.

"If we score on the breakaway and then there's no chance for them to score on the breakaway, it might be a different game. They might hang their head," Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau said. "The longer the game went 1-0, the more they dug in because they hadn't been successful and hadn't been successful defensively. So they really dug in, and their goalie made some big saves when they had to."

Gaudreau was skating on a new Flames top line alongside Sean Monahan and Troy Brouwer after Gulutzan juggled things, looking for some kind of spark.

After getting slashed twice later in the game, Gaudreau headed to the locker room and did not return in the third period. Gulutzan said he was unsure of Gaudreau's status for the Flames' Wednesday home game against the Arizona Coyotes.

"Whenever you're a great player, you're going to get keyed on. We do it, too," Brouwer said. "We talk about their top players, making sure we finish their checks and make it no fun for them. So we have to respond and not let that happen. That being said, it is going to happen once in a while, and I do it to other teams' top players, too, but we've also got to do a better job making sure that our presence is felt when something like that happens."

The Wild hit pipes late in the opening period and early in the second, dominating the play for a few extended stretches, but could not get the equalizer. Then both teams ran into penalty trouble as the game, for a time, devolved into a parade to the penalty box. Both teams had power-play opportunities, and neither capitalized as Calgary clung to the one-goal lead.

"It was a lot of penalties. Tough to get it going," Wild defenseman Ryan Suter said. "I just don't think we played the way we needed to. We had some chances and hit some posts. At the end of the day, we have to put the puck in the back of the net."

The Wild made a frantic final push with Dubnyk on the bench for an extra attacker but came up short. They lost a second home game in a row.

NOTES: Wild star LW Zach Parise returned to the lineup after missing the previous five games due to a lower body injury. He did not return to the top line and instead was on the third offensive unit with C Erik Haula and RW Jason Pominville. ... Calgary had rookie LW Matthew Tkachuk back in uniform on Tuesday. He had missed two games due to a hand injury suffered in practice last week when he was cut by a skate. ... Wild D Matt Dumba, a Calgary native, has joined Athletes Committed to Educating Students (ACES) as a player representative. The program, designed to eliminate the academic achievement gap, works with 900 students in the Twin Cities. ... Minnesota is in a stretch in which it plays five of six games at home. The Wild will host the Boston Bruins on Thursday.