Wolf Howling At Home For Flames As Calder Talk Gets Louder

Dustin Wolf has made himself right at home with the Calgary Flames. The Calder candidate's odds for some kind of hardware may be getting better with every start as he attempts to take over more minutes in the timeshare with fellow goaltender Dan Vladar.

After another impressive performance in a 2-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings at the Saddledome on Saturday, Wolf has probably earned a fourth-straight start when his Flames visit Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday night in the first half of a back-to-back on the road. Maybe he can bring some of that home cooking with him, too. Wolf is 11-2-1 with a 1.98 GAA and .936 save percentage at the Dome this season.

A fourth consecutive start in the Flames crease would be a first for either goaltender this season as Wolf and Vladar continue to share the workload. It might come with an asterisk, thought. Vladar was originally slated to start Wednesday's postponed game against the Kings with the wildfires raging in California.

Wolf started started three in a row just once, during a mid-November hot streak. Vladar followed that up with three straight of his own while Wolf nursed an illness in late November and early December.

We'll see how Calgary Flames head coach Ryan Huska and his goaltending staff plays it out with a stop in St. Louis on Tuesday before hosting the Blues on Thursday and then a quick jump to Winnipeg to face the Jets on Saturday.

It's tough to argue against starting Wolf right now. He was the biggest reason the Flames even had a chance of beating the Kings on Saturday night as he stopped 16 of 17 shots in the first period — including 11 of them over the first four minutes or so.

"It was Wolf," Huska told reporters post-game when asked what the difference was.

The Flames managed just 10 shots on goal in the first 40 minutes.

"We were able to hang around because our goaltender made some saves. I think once we got through the first period, our game got a little bit better, we got a really big powerplay goal and our penalty kill did a really good job for us tonight. Hung around for a bit, then we found a way to win."

Wolf has helped them stick around in games frequently this season as he's worked his way firmly into the rookie of the year conversation.