"He's been unbelievable": Markstrom heating up at just the right time for Flames
Jacob Markstrom is picking a good time to get hot.
Critical time, too.
Markstrom earned his first shutout of the season — in his 43rd start — on Tuesday, kicking out 40 pucks in what turned into an eventful, dramatic 1-0 shootout win at the Minnesota Wild.
The 33-year-old stopper, who had nine blankings in 63 starts a season ago, became just the third goaltender in franchise history with multiple 40-save shutouts, joining Dan Bouchard and Mike Smith.
“He was unbelievable,”Ā Rasmus AnderssonĀ told Flames TV. “He’s been unbelievable the last five, six games. He really deserved that one today. He deserved that shutout. I’m excited for him. It’s really good for our team. He’s our leader and when he plays like that, we have a lot of confidence.
“Obviously, a really tough back-to-back. Played a good team last night and played another really good team today. We managed to pull one through thanks to No. 25.”
More importantly, the victory gave Markstrom back-to-back wins for the first time since a run of three straight from December 18-23, 2022.
He’s gone 2-2-0 with a 2.21 goals-against average and .936 save percentage since coach Darryl Sutter declared Markstrom would carry the bulk of the load down the stretch with the Flames pushing for a playoff spot.
“We need Marky to get hot,” the skipper said at the time. “He’s such a great teammate and a great guy.
“Now, he’s got to put his foot on it.”
So far, so good.
Markstrom’s return to form couldn’t come at a more dire time for Calgary.
The Flames awoke Wednesday having emerged from a tailspin of win-one, lose-one, and now find themselves within four points of the Winnipeg Jets for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
Markstrom stopped 69 of 73 on their two-game road trip to lift the Flames to consecutive ‘w’s for the first time in over a month. They last deposited four of a possible four points from January 21-23.
“Feeling good,” the new dad said post-win. “Practicing good, feeling good, sleeping good. Everything is good, and especially when we win.”
Needless to say, it’s crunch time for the goaltender who still sports a 2.89 goals-against average and .893 save percentage on the campaign — one year after being the runner-up for the Vezina Trophy as the circuit’s top stopper.
He’s given them what they need over the small sample size.
“Honestly, I’m so happy for him,” teammate Tyler Toffoli said. “He’s just an incredible guy, a great teammate. Obviously, the start of the year wasn’t his greatest and a lot of people were all over him for a bit, but he’s stepped up – especially these last few games. And even before this, he was keeping us in games.
“I’m just really happy for him and glad we could get him a win.”
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