Beyond the Boxscore: Dustin Wolf backstops Flames to fourth straight victory

Taken By Chance – Mikael Backlund (55.73 SCF% // 100 HDCF%) leading off at least one of these columns feels normal now as year 4 is under way. He had another clean slate at 5v5 with no high danger looks against all game. It was tied for best on the team with linemate Zary (55.73 per cent // 100 per cent). The fourth line was tremendous – they’ll get their flowers in xGF% – contributing 6 high danger chances. Andersson (42.25 per cent // 84.83 per cent) and Bahl (37.55 per cent // 82.33 per cent) were out there a lot again as they embark on their quest to become one of the NHL’s best pairings. Calgary as a whole is not playing like things are going to crash anytime soon, so no reason to believe the Bahl-Andersson pairing will not continue to thrive.

xG Breakdown –

xGF% – Lets start with the glue of the fourth line so far. The one constant through all four games has been Ryan Lomberg (57.13 per cent), fresh off a Stanley Cup championship and clearly hungry for more. You’ve got a call-up in Justin Kirkland (67.40%) who is 28 years old, has over 400 professional games under his belt in the AHL, and just recorded his first career NHL goal last Sunday. Find me a more motivated person to keep riding the wave right now than Kirkland, I doubt you can. My evidence? Kirkland laying out for two massive blocked shots even after the empty net goal had gone in. Then there’s the scoring prospect everyone’s been waiting to see get into some action stay in the lineup in Matt Coronato (73.29 per cent). All he did was show up and get two goals – the hustle on the empty net goal and the second effort to whack in his first did not go unnoticed. Throw in that Adam Klapka can plug in at any time with these guys without throwing the chemistry off and Ryan Huska has some depth he can really, truly trust.

Game Flow –

Game Score –

Shot Heatmap –

In The Crease – Dustin Wolf is going to work on silencing those doubts one game at a time. Against the Blackhawks he was the primary reason for the victory. The Hawks as a whole weren’t anything more than average at best, but Wolf went toe-to-toe with Connor Bedard’s shot multiple times in that contest and came out the clear winner. 1.95 expected goals against with just one high danger chance getting behind him for a 5v5 save percentage of 0.964%. He was agile and athletic all night and never once looked out of control.

Today’s Specials – I may re-name this section “What did Kuzmenko do today?” because he is the driving force of the Calgary power play. Connor Zary has been a very welcome addition being able to make some great heads up plays with the other members. The power play was also about the only place I really noticed Nazem Kadri tonight. Kuzmenko ended up with the game winning goal because of the power play – I am very excited to see it back and performing better than it has in years. Makes it more entertaining for those watching to actually feel some anticipation when a penalty is called instead of dread.

The Goals –

Flash’s 3 Stars –

1) Dustin Wolf

2) Matt Coronato

3) Rasmus Andersson

(Stats compiled from Naturalstattrick.com // Game Score from Hockeystatcards.com // xG and Under Pressure charts from HockeyViz.com // Game Flow and Shot Heatmap from NaturalStatTrick.com)