Goaltenders Dustin Wolf and Dan Vladar have formed a formidable partnership, too. Each netminder has gotten three starts, and the duo has shown Huska the type of drive and determination required to lock things down in the blue paint.
“When you look at our record, you have to look at our goaltenders as a big reason as to why we’re sitting where we are,” said Huska.
Wolf boasts a .936 save percentage through three games, while Vladar has allowed just two goals over his last 120 minutes of regulation hockey - all of which has come away from the friendly confines of the Scotiabank Saddledome.
And with a run of form comes the emergence of unlikely heroes, like forward Justin Kirkland, the 28 year-old centreman has looked every part the two-way centre Huska was hoping he’d be after an early-season call-up, but a completely different professional than the junior player Huska coached a decade ago with the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets.
“The guy back then was more about all skill, and not a lot of will,” Huska said Tuesday with a wry smile. “Now he’s flipped it, where he still has a great skill-set, but I would say he’s more of a harder player than a skill player now.
“When he was in (the AHL at) Milwaukee - I think Dean Evason was the coach - they moved him to centre-ice and they worked with him on becoming a harder player. He’s done that and he’s stayed with that.”
Another ingredient in what’s been a winning recipe thus far for Calgary.
But it’s a group that will be put to the test tonight against a Carolina team not lacking in speed, skill and grit.
Huska is hopeful, though, that the lessons already learned on this young 2024-25 journey will serve his group well, as the winds start to pick up on ‘Dome ice tonight.
“The big thing for us, you’re going to be in hard games all the way through here,” he explained.
“If we can find a way to stay with it and find different ways to win, that’s a really big thing.”
