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CALGARY — Justin Kirkland was as surprised as anyone to hear his name called by Ryan Huska late Tuesday night.
Six rounds into an intense, star-studded shootout, the AHL journeyman with one NHL goal to his name was summoned.
“I just heard my name called and looked back to double check, ‘Me?’” shrugged the 28-year-old AHL veteran, with just 14 NHL games under his belt.
“I was a little bit (surprised).
“There’s serious high-end skill in this room. I really wasn’t expecting it, but I’ve had that move for a little while, and it’s worked before.”
It worked again as he tucked the puck past Pittsburgh’s Alex Nedeljkovic for a 4-3 win that sent the Flames to a 5-0-1 start and lifted 18,000 locals out of their seats in one of the most unexpected frenzies in years.
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Ten days after being summoned to make his Flames debut, the kid with 400 career AHL games and a life-threatening car accident under his belt continued his dream-like promotion.
The only one who wasn’t surprised by the call was Dustin Wolf, who spent a year in Stockton witnessing Kirkland’s shootout prowess.
“As soon as I saw he was going for the shootout I knew we were going to win,” said Wolf, who punctuated the Flames’ latest comeback win by stopping Evgeni Malkin, a man with 499 more snipes than ol’ Costco.
“He’s Mr. Automatic when it comes to shootouts. I don’t think I’ve seen him miss yet. Pretty awesome to see what he is doing.”
Ditto for the Flames, whose latest triumph was made possible by Wolf’s 35-save performance and Nazem Kadri’s game-tying finish with 43 seconds remaining against a feisty Penguins squad.
All of it set the stage for the fourth-line revelation, who scored his first NHL goal, picked up his first NHL assist and now has his first game-winner all in the last fortnight.
Checking centres aren’t supposed to grab this many headlines.
“If you look at the American league stuff, he scores all the time, so I was kind of kicking myself for not going to him earlier, to be quite honest with you,” smiled Huska, who’d tapped Andrei Kuzmenko, Anthony Mantha, Rasmus Andersson, Connor Zary, and Kadri beforehand.
“Guys who’ve played with him in the American league know he’s pretty automatic, so it was nice to see him score tonight.”
As raucous as the celebration was when Kadri sent the game into overtime, the smiles on the bench after Kirkland scored couldn’t have been wider.
He’s as unexpected a story as any in a room full of early-season surprises.
“For sure because he’s a good person that has worked a long time to try to get himself here, and now he’s having success, so it’s a really nice story for us to be part of,” shared Huska, who also said Kirkland has transformed his game tremendously since he coached the Winnipeg native as a junior in Kelowna.
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“The guy back then was all skill and not a lot of will, and now he’s flipped it, where he still has a great skill set, but I would say he’s more of a harder player than a skill player now.”
Kirkland’s heroics overshadowed Wolf’s seventh straight win dating back to last season, which Kirkland and Kadri were quick to point out.
The league’s most surprising of starts has seen three of the Flames’ wins come despite deficits.
They’re taking this us-against-the-world thing rather seriously, using it as fuel to prove to everyone, including themselves, that the sum of their parts is greater than anything they could fathom doing individually.
Everyone in that room wants to be a Flame, has bought into the system and is being asked to play roles perfectly suited to their respective skill sets.
The results have been quite entertaining, to say the least.
Guys like Kirkland typify just how hard every player is working for the greater good.
“It was a great comeback win, and it shows the character of our group,” said Kirkland, whose club is off to its best start in franchise lore.
“That was an awesome way to cap it off. The most nervous I’ve ever been. Happy it went in and obviously Wolfie made a big save on the next one.
“All in all a fantastic night, absolutely living the dream.
“A lot of relief and a whole lot of emotions, too. A little bit surreal that this is going on right now, so I’m taking it all in.”
So is the rest of the city.
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