Dustin Wolf confident in net again after 'mental reset'

There was no “unconscious brain” needed for the Calgary Flames and Dustin Wolf in a gritty, defence-heavy 2–1 win in SAP Centre Monday night.

Dustin Wolf put on a show in front of his friends and family in his home state. He stopped 26 of 27 shots.

Wolf has spent most of the last month riding the pine during Devin Cooley’s unbelievable hot streak. Cooley’s lower-body injury, suffered on October 28 at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers Colton Dach, has allowed Wolf to once again take the reins for the Calgary Flames.

Wolf has won two straight games now. He stopped 22 of 20 shots in a 6–2 Flames victory over the Seattle Kraken on October 30, asserting that he is still the Calgary Flames’ bona fide starting netminder.

Wolf started the season slowly, putting up an .813 save percentage, and a .778 save percentage the following game.

Not the start Wolf or the Flames were expecting from the Gilroy, California native.

Wolf touched on this post-game, stating:

“I didn’t have the start to the year on a personal level that I wanted, you normally don’t have the opportunity during the last couple weeks to work on areas of your game that you don’t really like, Cool’s (Devin Cooley) was outstanding during that stretch, he gave our team the chance to climb back in the standings and gave me a chance to reset my mind and work on some areas of my game that I wanted to get a little better at, and I feel pretty confident in net right now” – Dustin Wolf

Ryan Huska and the coaching staff didn’t seem to share Wolf’s sentiment. Huska expressed that he never lost faith in his star goaltender:

“It’s not something that we, as a coaching staff, have really ever worried about. Everybody goes through ups and downs over the course of a season. He just happened to go through his early. He’s spent a lot of time finding his game again and getting back to the level where I think he’d probably say he’s comfortable playing.” – Ryan Huska

Goalies go through ups and downs fairly often in today’s NHL. The Flames have seen plenty of that in the netminder’s crease over the years, with Jacob Markstrom’s hot-and-cold streaks coming to mind.

Cooley’s recovery time will let Wolf reclaim his spot as the Flames’ number-one goaltender. His next opportunity comes Thursday night.

The Flames are back in action in the Emerald City when they take on the Seattle Kraken. Wolf is likely starting in a game he deserves to play.