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Instant Reaction: Dustin Wolf and Matvei Gridin shine in shootout win over Seattle

Originally posted on Flamesnation | By Ryan Pike | Last updated Sep 30, 2025 1:09 AM ET

Welcome to Instant Reaction, where we give you our instant reaction to tonight’s Calgary Flames game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below!

The Calgary Flames sent a fairly youthful group to Seattle on Monday evening for their final road pre-season contest of 2025-26 against the Kraken. The game featured some big swings in momentum and some very good netminding from 2019 seventh-rounder Dustin Wolf.

The Flames overcame a slow start to beat the Kraken by a 2-1 score in a shootout.

The rundown

Seattle out-shot the Flames 17-5 in the first period. Dustin Wolf made 17 saves.

The rest of the game was much more even.

Berkly Catton opened the scoring for the Kraken 2:02 into the second period, as a Matty Beniers shot ricocheted off a Flames player in the slot and bounced to the bottom of the circles, where Catton was there to swat the loose puck in before Wolf could get across the open net. That gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead.

But the Flames answered back midway through the period, with Ilya Solovyov making a smart outlet pass to spring Matvei Gridin into the Kraken zone. Gridin beat Philipp Grubauer to tie the game at 1-1.

Ilya Solovyov springs Matvei Gridin in on a breakaway and he buries it! What a shot! pic.twitter.com/1Y6yHoEir7

— Robert Munnich (@RingOfFireCGY) September 30, 2025

Neither team scored in the third period or overtime, despite a Kraken scoring chance clanging off the inside crossbar and the inside far post before staying out the net.

This is wild. Seattle hits both posts. The puck never crosses the goal line. The Flames catch a break in overtime. pic.twitter.com/Vut6NgSxlD

— Robert Munnich (@RingOfFireCGY) September 30, 2025

In the shootout, Morgan Frost and Gridin scored for the Flames, while Frederik Gaudreau scored for Seattle.

Gridin’s incredible patient approach (and wicked quick shot) decided the game.

Matvei Gridin scores a beauty in the shootout! Flames win 2-1! pic.twitter.com/A2N7g2yfGT

— Robert Munnich (@RingOfFireCGY) September 30, 2025

How did it go?

The Flames were on their heels in the first period but, as has happened many times with #32 in net, their netminder was rock-solid and allowed them to build their game. Heck, the lone goal against in regulation was a really weird ricochet that he didn’t have any chance on.

In terms of skaters, a lot of players in red and white had good outings. Jake Bean played over 25 minutes. Morgan Frost won 84.6% of his face-offs. (Rory Kerins? 61.5%. Justin Kirkland? 58.8%.) Ilya Solovyov was really solid and played a smart game. Sam Honzek and Sam Morton were strong on the penalty kill.

And it’s hard to understate how good Matvei Gridin was in this game. He made two very good offensive plays on a Stanley Cup-winning goaltender. It’s tough to say what that means in the pre-season, but it’s not nothing.