Rookie goaltender Dustin Wolf recorded his third shutout of the season and his career while backstopping the host Calgary Flames to a 1-0 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
Joel Farabee scored the game’s lone goal for the Flames, who moved back into the Western Conference’s second wild-card position.
Wolf made 26 saves in an excellent goaltending battle to pitch the goose egg in his team’s first game at home after a six-game road trip. He is the first rookie goaltender in franchise history to record three shutouts in a season.
Among Wolf’s clutch saves were against Cole Caufield’s one-timer right after Farabee opened the scoring in the second period, a Brendan Gallagher rebound chance in the middle of the third period and Nick Suzuki’s golden opportunity in the final minutes while the visitors had their goalie pulled for the extra attacker.
The Flames have earned points in four straight games (2-0-2) since being shutout in back-to-back outings.
Calgary has won four consecutive meetings with Montreal and swept the two-game season series.
Jakub Dobes, another freshman netminder, stopped 23 shots for the Canadiens, who had their streak of earning points snapped at six games.
Dobes was especially strong in the early portion of the game, while his team was held to only one shot on goal for nearly 15 minutes.
Montreal missed an opportunity to tie the Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Rangers for the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot.
Farabee finally broke the scoring at 16:21 of the second with his second goal in as many games. Farabee played give-and-go with Mikael Backlund and, upon receiving the puck back in the right circle, found the target through the screen.
A huge key to Calgary’s win was snuffing both of Montreal’s power-play opportunities. The Flames have been perfect in five consecutive games, killing 17 consecutive penalties.
–Field Level Media
