Most high-level athletes, college or professional, don’t like it when reporters bring up a mistake they’ve made. Brock Faber, on the other hand, sometimes brings them up himself.

Faber has a goal and 12 points, and is among the team’s leaders with a plus-7 despite consistently playing against opponents’ top scoring lines. In what has been a disappointing season so far, his storyline is a major positive.

So, on the heels of playing a career-high 30 minutes, 8 seconds in Thursday night’s 3-2 shootout victory over Calgary at Xcel Energy Center, Faber was presented with a series of questions about how, and why, he has played so well.

“I’ve had bad games,” he said. “Last night I didn’t have a great game, to be honest with you.”

In what way?

“I turned pucks over, I wasn’t clean on breakouts, I didn’t create much offensively,” he said. “I defended fine, (but) I have a standard for myself, that I know I can be better. It doesn’t bother me, by any means; we won, that’s all I care about.”

Faber also reminded reporters that he was on the power play when Blake Coleman gave the Flames a 2-1 lead, a short-handed goal that banged off Faber’s skate

Of course it’s easy to be humble when you’ve been as good, and valuable, as Faber has been, really, since joining the Wild for the postseason right out of the University of Minnesota last April. Still, it’s refreshing — maybe because he’s been so good. With just 33 NHL games under his belt, Faber’s ceiling seems limitless.

“Brock is really playing great,” coach John Hynes said after Thursday’s win. “You see it today. His game in general is good.”

Since the season began on Oct. 12, Faber, 21, has steadily taken on new roles and responsibilities, most notably becoming an effective point on the power play — a first since before he joined the Gophers out of Maple Grove.

With Jonas Brodin (upper body) and Jared Spurgeon (lower body) sidelined by injury on Thursday, it was Faber who took the lion’s share of minutes for the blue line. He killed penalties, played point on the top power play and in the rotation for the three-on-three overtime session.

Near the end of overtime, Faber helped keep a potential Flames winning goal out of the net before helping his linemates regain possession and allowing the Wild to make a much-needed change that led to a flurry of scoring chances in the closing minute. Hynes said it was the kind of play that typifies Faber.

“He’s totally exhausted, he’s behind the net, he’s in a puck battle — and the puck is there, he’s got a second effort, completely exhausted,” the coach said. “Not only is it a second effort, he’s got the wherewithal to bump it back so we can gain possession of the puck and get a line change.

“You look at that one little component. We’ve been talking about not just his talent, but his mindset and mental maturity to handle the minutes he has and situations he’s in.”

When he went to the bench, Faber was visibly angry, banging his stick on the boards in front of him.

Why?

“I was the one who turned the puck over initially,” he said. “It was just a weird bounce, at center ice, and it kind of fluttered over my stick — a stupid turnover. Which, obviously, three on three, possession is so important. So, I did that, it ended up leading to a 2-minute shift.

“So, I was just more mad at myself. I was glad that we didn’t get scored on, but mad that I put myself in that spot.”

Guerin with team

General manager Bill Guerin was at TRIA Rink on Friday to watch his team practice, hours after he was revealed to be the center of an internal investigation into verbal abuse.

Guerin was not available to reporters. On Thursday night, he didn’t answer a text asking for comment.

According to The Athletic, Guerin was accused of verbally abusing a team employee. The Wild acknowledged it recently wrapped up two internal investigations but didn’t identify the foci or the employees involved.

An email to the NHL on Friday was not immediately returned. In a statement sent to reporters Thursday night, the Wild said it takes its code of conduct seriously and “have taken appropriate steps to address the matters raised to our attention.”

The club again declined to comment on Friday.

Briefly

Spurgeon did not participate in Friday’s practice and Hynes said his availability for Saturday’s 1 p.m. puck drop against Vancouver at the X will be a game-time decision. Filip Gustavsson will be in net, and there could be a change on the blue line. If that happens, it likely would be rookie Daemon Hunt getting into the lineup.

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