Dustin Wolf looks like himself again, and the Calgary Flames are feeling the benefits.
In a tight, low-event 2-1 win at SAP Centre on Monday night, Wolf was sharp in front of friends and family back in his home state, turning aside 26 of 27 shots to help Calgary grind out the result. It was the kind of performance that fit the game: no wasted motion, no room for error, just a goalie locking things down when the margin was razor thin.
Wolf’s return to the crease has come after a stretch on the bench while Devin Cooley caught fire. Cooley’s lower-body injury on October 28, suffered at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers Colton Dach, opened the door for Wolf to take back the net for Calgary.
And he’s made the most of it. Wolf has now won two straight, including a 6-2 Flames victory over the Seattle Kraken on October 30, a game in which he stopped 22 of 20 shots and reinforced the idea that he remains Calgary’s starter.
The beginning of Wolf’s season was rough. The Gilroy, California native opened with an .813 save percentage, then followed that with a .778 save percentage in his next outing. It wasn’t the start he or the Flames wanted.
After Monday’s win, Wolf said the time away from the net helped him clear his head and sharpen parts of his game.
“I didn’t have the start to the year on a personal level that I wanted, you normally don’t have the opportunity during the last couple weeks to work on areas of your game that you don’t really like, Cool’s (Devin Cooley) was outstanding during that stretch, he gave our team the chance to climb back in the standings and gave me a chance to reset my mind and work on some areas of my game that I wanted to get a little better at, and I feel pretty confident in net right now” - Dustin Wolf
Ryan Huska didn’t sound concerned at any point. The Flames coach said the staff never really lost belief in Wolf and pointed to the natural swings that come with the position.
“It’s not something that we, as a coaching staff, have really ever worried about. Everybody goes through ups and downs over the course of a season.
He just happened to go through his early. He’s spent a lot of time finding his game again and getting back to the level where I think he’d probably say he’s comfortable playing.” - Ryan Huska
That kind of bounce-back is part of life for NHL goaltenders, and the Flames have seen their share of it over the years, with Jacob Markstrom’s hot-and-cold stretches coming to mind.
With Cooley still working back, Wolf is set to reclaim the No. 1 job. Calgary’s next chance to ride him comes Thursday night in Seattle against the Kraken, where Wolf is likely to get the start in a game he’s earned.
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