Coming off his first career shutout, Dustin Wolf had a helluva encore as he made 28 saves in a 2-1 shootout victory over the visiting Isles Tuesday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
The netminder is now 4-0-1 in his last five starts with some simply stunning stats: a 1.55 GAA and a .946 save percentage.
Justin Kirkland - with his parents in the stands - had his second winner of the season in the 1-on-1 battle, while Andrei Kuzmenko also tallied. Wolf denied Kyle Palmieri and Bo Horvat in the shootout to put the cherry on top of his night.
The Flames netminder made 29 stops against the visiting Predators Friday night for his milestone marker, and picked up where he left off Tuesday.
He made three massive stops in the third in rapid succession to keep his team down by just a goal before the club's leading scorer, Rasmus Andersson, would tie it up later in the frame.
The first came when he slid across his crease to stop Alexander Romanov and then moments later, he kicked out his right pad to deny Horvat on the doorstep.
On the next New York possession, he stoned Maxim Tsyplakov on a partial breakaway.
"The zone is definitely a great word to use," said Wolf, when asked if he's in 'a zone' right now. "That’s kind of the stuff I work on, the mindfulness side of the game. If you can reach that zone, you’re going to feel good. But our team battled that out tonight, we found a way to win."
Andersson had high praise for the young backstop's play.
"The more comfortable you get in this league, the more you believe in yourself, the more success you’re going to have," said Andersson. "He for sure believes in himself quite a bit. He’s been awesome, especially the last seven, eight games that he’s played. He saved us tonight."
It was Calgary’s first shootout win over New York, and fifth comeback victory of the season as they improved to 10-6-3.
