CALGARY — Ten minutes left in a 1-1 game against the defending champs isn’t generally the moment you’d expect a rookie to step up as a hero.
Unless, of course, you have six of them in the lineup, and one of them is Dustin Wolf.
One month after his last start saw the NHL’s worst team hang six on the Flames goalie of the future, there he was staring down an Ivan Barbashev breakaway Thursday night with the game on the line.
“He threaded the needle between our defence and I thought he probably made too many stickhandles and I just tried to stay on my feet and stick with him,” said the 22-year-old goalie of a blocker save he calmly steered aside, leading to a Blake Coleman finish 13 seconds later that wound up as the game-winner.
“That’s the game of hockey, you get a save at one end and a goal at the other.
It kind of happens more often than you think. Pretty pivotal moment in the game where I’m just trying to stay as dialled in as I could.”
Unaccustomed to adversity throughout a career that has seen him named goalie of the year his last four seasons, Wolf’s spot duty with the Flames this season hasn’t been as smooth as he’d hoped.
With one win in his previous five starts, and the Flames reeling from three-straight blowout losses, a start against the Cup champs probably seemed like a punishment to some.
He saw it for the opportunity it was, and made the most of it with a stellar 28-save performance that finished with a 4-1 Flames win.
“They get a great look and the game is maybe completely different if Wolfie doesn’t make that save,” said Coleman of the breakaway stop.
“Didn’t look like (Barbashev) ever really had a chance, he stayed right with him.
“He looked very confident. Sometimes when your goalie shows that level of confidence it goes right through the group.”
His heavy lifting wasn’t done, as Wolf made a tough save off a Keegan Kolesar redirect with five minutes left, leading to Matt Coronato’s second of the year 13 seconds later.
Game over.
“That (first) save was huge, it helped with the momentum,” said Coronato, a recent call-up accustomed to seeing Wolf thrive in the minors.
“He played unbelievable tonight, so I’m really happy for him.
“He kept us in it all night.”
On a night that began with a focus on Noah Hanifin’s return, a polite applause following the veteran’s tribute video ended that storyline.
There were a few boos here and there for the defenceman who was traded eight days earlier, but nothing significant.
In a close game through two periods, the Flames deserved a ton of credit for sticking with the Golden Knights despite a transitional roster with eight players who have less that 65 NHL games to their credit.
They tightened up defensively, limited Vegas’ chances, and hung tough even after an egregious giveaway by rookie Brayden Pachal handed the visitors a 1-0 lead late in the second period.
A Yegor Sharangovich goal tied it early in the third and gave the Flames some juice for a finish few saw coming.
And while it seemed Wolf was destined for this to be a one-and-done appearance to give Dan Vladar a rest, he’s now a no-brainer to start Saturday at home against the Habs.
“The team was excellent from start to finish — they let me see pucks, and if I can see pucks I’m going to stop most of them,” said the uber-confident Californian, who gave up five goals to lose in overtime against Vegas in December.
“I didn’t get the result against them earlier in the year and it was nice to get a second chance and play the way I did, and also have the team play awesome in front of me.
“As I’ve said, there’s learning opportunities to come out of a loss, especially one where you get banged up pretty good.
“This feels good.”
Especially given how low the Flames were feeling leading in.
“It was an embarrassing 72 hours for our team,” summed up Coleman, who also added an empty netter to punctuate a turnabout that says plenty about this team’s character.
“We maybe didn’t handle our response to losing some guys and some friends (at the deadline), and we got slapped pretty hard for not showing up and being our best.
“At the end of the day if you’ve got pride and you get beat up like that you better respond or you don’t really belong in this league.”
