Flames cap off season on high note after promising NHL debuts from Coronato, Wolf

CALGARY — The solo rookie lap took on a few new twists.

Not only were two lads involved, but one was a goalie.

A healthy portion of Saddledome faithful arrived early Wednesday night to welcome Dustin Wolf and Matt Coronato to the NHL, wondering just how the youngsters might choreograph the two-man spin.

They didn’t.

“We actually forgot to knock the pucks off the bench, so we were skating around there with three pucks, chasing them down,” shrugged Coronato following his dream date with the big leagues.

“Besides that, it was great.”

Pausing when asked what his takeaway from the evening was, he smiled.

“That (lap) was the moment for me.”

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What saved it was Wolf having the wherewithal to dish a disc to Coronato as he streaked through the middle of the ice, towards the net.

“I was kind of hoping he was going to give it to me,” laughed the Flames’ 2021 first rounder, who signed a few weeks ago after his sophomore season at Harvard.

“Otherwise I wasn’t going to have a puck — I would have looked silly.

“He put it right on my tape, so nice play.”

Armed with a vision that has made him the AHL’s best netminder two years in a row, Wolf spotted the breakdown early.

“Normally I only knock one puck off and he obviously didn’t knock many more,” said Wolf, whose parents flew in to sit right beside Coronato’s.

“It was obviously pretty awesome.

“You come out and see all the kids on the glass and they’re excited to see you and obviously I was super excited to be in my first game.

“I did a couple laps and left him to it.”

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Not before making that backhand pass, tape to tape.

“There was one puck out there, so I was like, ‘I better not be the one to shoot it.’”

Instead, he focused on stopping all of ’em, except one.

Picking up where he left off as the likely MVP of the AHL this season with a 41-9-2 record, a 2.08 goals against average and an otherworldly .932 save percentage, Wolf made 23 saves in a 3-1 Flames win.

Almost every one of them was followed by a howl from the pews, as is a Wranglers tradition.

The native of Gilroy, Ca. did it against the team he grew up cheering for, the San Jose Sharks.

The only blemish on his evening was a first period rebound by Noah Gregor that slid under his pad, a goal Nikita Zadorov would later erase with his first NHL hat trick.

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Demonstrating the type of composure and IQ that has made him the Flames’ top prospect, he calmly reacted to a second San Jose goal that was clearly gloved in.

He knew it would be waived off by a video review.

On this night the heaviness that had enveloped the Flames and their fans all season long was gone.

Game 82 wasn’t about the death of the season, it was about the birth of two new exciting careers.

Neither disappointed.

Coronato demonstrated the world class release of his with four shots on net, including a few Grade A chances like the one set up in tight by rookie linemate Jakob Pelletier between the legs.

“Unbelievable play, he made a nice save,” said the lad who averaged a goal a game his last season in the USHL.

“It was a great play by him.”

Expect many more such exchanges between those two down the road.

With the Flames’ playoff hopes coming to an end one game earlier, this was a night to allow veterans like Milan Lucic to say goodbye to Calgary and two exciting youngsters to be rewarded with a carrot of sorts.

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Does it give Coronato the belief he belongs in the NHL?

“It’s tough to say after one game, I’m not going to say that,” said the 20-year-old who will return to Harvard this weekend.

“It’s important to be confident.

“I can’t really remember everything that happened in the game. So much adrenaline.

“I’ve got to watch it over again and see.”

So will Wolf, but not before he races out to Abbotsford to join the Wranglers for their final two regular season games with an eye on clinching the top record.

“It’s rewarding — you put the work in each and every day and you dream about that as a kid,” said the six-foot, 156-pound junior star whose diminutive frame size prompted him to wait until four picks from the end of the 2019 draft to be selected.

“To get that first game and first win it feels awesome, and obviously leaves you wanting more.

“It was good for me to get a game here and then go down and hopefully win a Calder Cup.”

And you can bet all eyes of the city will be on him then, as they were Wednesday.

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