It’s not like there were any real concerns about Dustin Wolf, not after the way he’d started the season.
But maybe a few questions had begun to creep in about whether he’d started to fall off just a bit after he’d allowed 14 goals in three starts. That happens with young players, it’s part of the process, right?
Well, Wolf answered those questions emphatically on Saturday night. There’s nothing to worry about. The 23-year-old shot-stopper stood on his head against the Florida Panthers, turning away all 32 shots he faced from the Stanley Cup champions in a 3-0 win for the Calgary Flames.
“You know what, I came home from Dallas, got all new gear, changed my suit, came to the rink and played hockey,” Wolf explained to reporters. “It’s a privilege to play in this league and there’s going to be nights where bounces don’t go your way, games don’t go your way, and there’s things you can look back on where you want to be better.
“But it’s a great opportunity when you can come to the rink the next day and work. I’ve had about a week or so since I played last and have really been able to go in on my game and get the confidence back.”
Wolf definitely looks like a young man who had his game back against the Panthers. He wasn’t the only player on the ice for the Flames who was looking to make a statement with their play — most of the roster was feeling that way after an embarrassing 8-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.
And to a man, the Flames responded. You could make the argument that Saturday night’s game was the team’s best 60-minute performance of the season, and that’s what it’s going to take for this squad to beat good teams like the Panthers or the Boston Bruins, who roll through the Saddledome on Tuesday.
Wolf will surely be in net for that one, too. His play on Saturday all but guarantees it, as the Flames have been breaking up the game-by-game rotation between himself and Dan Vladar only when one of them has posted a shutout this season. Vladar is currently listed as out day-to-day with a lower-body injury anyway, so Wolf will have the chance to build on Saturday night’s showing between the pipes.
With his three-game dip firmly behind him, the Flames will be feeling good about that.
“I think for him, probably moreso. He’ll leave here feeling really good about where his game is at again,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “For us, everybody goes through a stretch or two like that, it’s just sticking with it and making sure he knows we continue to believe in him. Even the games where we got beat and he gave up some goals, I didn’t think he was poor, I just didn’t think the game was as good in front of him.”
The Flames were at their best on Saturday, but beating the Panthers still required big saves in big moments from Wolf. In particular, the way he turned away Sam Bennett on a breakaway early in the third period stood out as a key moment in the game.
The Flames were up 2-0 at the time and a goal would have turned up the pressure considerably. Instead, Wolf made the stop and Mikael Backlund scored to effectively put the game to bed just a few minutes later.
It was the type of moment where you need your goalie to come up big. Nobody would have blamed Wolf had Bennett scored. The Panthers centre has 13 goals this season, after all.
But instead, Wolf made sure that momentum didn’t flip. It’s exactly what a team needs from its goaltender.
“Anytime you can make a save in a third period or just a breakaway save in general, your hope is that it can bring your team some momentum and I thought he kind of fanned on it a little bit but I’ll never complain about that,” Wolf said. “The last couple I’ve not been at my best but that’s the way hockey goes sometimes, any time you get the next opportunity you want to make the most of it and obviously we’ve been pretty good here at home and we wanted to come with a better effort after our last game, myself included.”