Dustin Wolf leaves his Wranglers teammates excited about his playoff performance

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Matthew Coronato described it as “unreal.”

Jakob Pelletier said “this guy is crazy.”

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To a man, Dustin Wolf’s teammates on the Calgary Wranglers were impressed by the way he turned down shot after shot in their first-round sweep of the Tucson Roadrunners last weekend.

And it’s not exactly a secret that Wolf seems to stop almost everything thrown at him when he’s with the Wranglers. But even by his own standards, the two performances he put in against the Roadrunners were something special.

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“Especially the first game, I don’t know, it’s a great feeling to be on the bench knowing how well he played and the confidence we have in him,” Coronato said Wednesday. “It was the same in Game 2, I think he has a lot of confidence moving forward and the team has a lot of confidence in him.”

Wolf was an evens out the balance a little. bit.

After all, this is a goalie who was the AHL Goalie of the Year for two consecutive seasons in 2021-22 and 2022-23 and was also the league’s MVP last year.

He won’t be competing for those awards this season, but that’s mostly because he spent so much time with the Calgary Flames. He played in 17 games for the NHL club this year, winning seven times and posting a 3.16 goals against average and .893 save percentage.

When Dan Vladar’s season ended early, Wolf was also with the Flames for the final month of their campaign and his play definitely improved towards the end of that stretch.

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He’s taking the lessons he learned into this playoff run with the Wranglers and so far that’s paying off spectacularly.

“I mean, when you spend a long period of time with the best players in the world, you can find some areas where you need to improve and I think that’s exactly what happened,” Wolf said Wednesday morning. “I started to find my rhythm there towards the end of the season and obviously felt very good in the two games we played in Tucson. “Now it’s just about keeping those things under control and getting ready for Friday.”

How good was Wolf against the Roadrunners? Well, there probably wasn’t anyone better in the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs.

His .966 save percentage was the best recorded in the first round and he stopped 86 of the 89 shots he faced.

The 23-year-old was especially spectacular in Game 1 when he recorded a 46-save shutout.

“It’s amazing. We were on the bench, especially on the PK, I was on the bench and I thought, ‘Wow, this guy is crazy,'” Pelletier said. “The way he moved in the box, you’re not scared.” , you know he’s going to be there and touch the puck or make a save. For us, it’s huge to know that he can make big stops.”

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The Wranglers will likely need some of those stops against the Firebirds, who eliminated them from the playoffs last season and scored an AHL-leading 252 goals in the regular season.

They score by committee and have won six of eight games with the Wranglers this season, although it’s worth noting that the Calgary team saw a steady stream of guys called up to the NHL. Several of those guys are back now, so past performances only count to a point.

And the Wranglers are feeling confident after the way they dispatched the Roadrunners.

And with Wolf in the fold, who wouldn’t feel like they have a chance to get some revenge for last year’s playoff loss?

“They’re a good club there,” Wolf said. “They are well coached, they have good players and they are deep and we have had some good games against them in the last two years. “They brought out the best in us last year and now we have a chance to get it back.”

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