Jacob Markstrom makes 40 saves for first Calgary Flames shutout of 2022–23 season

While it’s been an extremely difficult season for the Calgary Flames’ goaltenders, Jacob Markstrom came up huge with a 40-save shutout in a 1–0 shootout win over the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday evening.

The 33-year-old netminder also stopped three of four Minnesota stops he faced in the narrow victory, which moved the Flames within four points of the Winnipeg Jets for the final Western Conference playoff spot.

Some of Markstrom’s best work of Tuesday’s game came in the third period, during which the Wild outshot the Flames by a 16–6 count. You won’t see many better saves this season than Markstrom’s diving glove stop on Jared Spurgeon with seven minutes left in regulation.

Aside from the 2021–22 season, Markstrom has never been a goaltender who racks up a ton of shutouts. Of course, he posted a league-high nine clean sheets in 63 games with the Flames last year, but it took until Markstrom’s NHL season for him to record his first shutout. Before he joined the Flames, Markstrom had posted five shutouts in 272 career games.

Through 44 games in 2022–23, Markstrom had yet to make it all the way to the end of one without giving up a goal. On the contrary, he’s shown an alarming tendency to allow goals on the very first shot he’s faced in games all season long — but he showed very few signs of liability against Minnesota on Tuesday.

Markstrom now has a 17–17–8 record and an .893 save percentage with the Flames this season. Since the birth of his son on Feb. 27, Markstrom has gone 2–2–1 with a .929. Much better!

The Flames aren’t out of the woods just yet. Going by points percentage, they currently sit in 10th place in the Western Conference and will need to leapfrog the Jets and Nashville Predators to qualify for the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs. They’ll get another chance to show what they can do when they return to action against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday.