Dominant Goaltender Continues Calder Worthy Season Amid Flames Crease Takeover

The Calgary Flames have been hanging around the NHL playoff race primarily because of solid goaltending. And while there's unlikely to be any formal announcement of Dustin Wolf's crease takeover, the rookie netminder punctuated his case for the starter title by checking another accomplishment off his list.

The Bounceback.

After a rare mediocre performance in a loss to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday, Wolf was tasked with taking on the top team in the Western Conference on their ice surface on Saturday's Hockey Day in Canada broadcast. The 23-year-old made 38 saves to help the Flames beat the Winnipeg Jets 3-1 and improve his own record to 16-7-2.

He was electric, allowing just a single goal to the league's top offense and adding a couple of clutch breakaway saves to his total — which is a season high and just two off his career high. And those breakaway stops may not even have been Wolf's best on a night the Jets created plenty of high-danger chances.

"He was really, really good tonight and made some huge, huge saves. Not much more to say, he was really good," a nearly speechless Matt Coronato told Flames TV after the game, ranking the it as "up there" as one of Wolf's top NHL performances.

You get the feeling there are going to be plenty more this season, as Wolf has finally wrestled the majority of starts away from fellow Calgary Flames backstop Dan Vladar. Wolf's win over Winnipeg was his second straight start for the Flames, and his sixth in the team’s last seven games.

The Flames and head coach Ryan Huska have done a great job easing Wolf into his first full NHL season, but it looks like there's no need to protect him now. He's very much a contender in the Calder Trophy race — and the majority of starts in the Flames net over the second half of the season would certainly help that cause.

One game doesn't define a season, but this one may be remembered as the turning point in Wolf's transition to top spot on the depth chart.