Wolf, Farabee shine as Flames edge Canadiens 1-0

Montreal Canadiens' Owen Beck, right, tries to get at the puck before Calgary Flames' Brayden Pachal, left, clears it as goalie Dustin Wolf looks on during second period NHL hockey action in Calgary on Saturday, March 8, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

CALGARY — Joel Farabee scored the only goal and Dustin Wolf made 26 saves as the Calgary Flames moved back into a playoff spot with a 1-0 NHL victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.

The win moves the Flames — who have points in their last four games (2-0-2) — into the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference, one point up on the idle Vancouver Canucks.

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Montreal, which entered the game with points in six straight (5-0-1) games, was shutout for the fourth time this season. The Canadiens remain two points back of the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference.

Wolf, who collected his third shutout, improves to 22-12-4. He also moves to 3-0-0 in his career against the Canadiens.

At the other end, Jakub Dobes made 23 stops for the Habs. He falls to 6-3-1.

Calgary had a 16-6 edge in shots halfway through the game, but the Canadiens were the better team over the final half, they just couldn’t solve the Flames' goaltender.

TAKEAWAYS

Canadiens: The most dangerous Canadien all game was Cole Caufield, who led both teams with five shots on goal. Two of those shots came late in the second as Montreal had Calgary hemmed in eventually leading to a Flames penalty. On the power play, Caufield had a dangerous slapshot blocked by Rasmus Andersson. In the third, Caufield hit the crossbar on a setup from Lane Hutson and put the puck over the net on a breakaway. Caufield has his four-game goal streak and six-game point streak snapped.

Flames: Calgary entered the game last in the NHL with 2.58 goals per game and it looked like it would much of the same on this night. In outshooting the Canadiens 9-4 in the first period, Yegor Sharangovich had consecutive dangerous chances, but his initial shot and then rebound was stopped by Dobes. MacKenzie Weegar also had a dangerous chance when he carved across the slot and flung a dangerous backhand on net that Dobes stopped with his left pad.

KEY MOMENT

It took more than 36 minutes, but Calgary finally opened the scoring on Farabee’s 11th goal of the season and third since joining the Flames in a trade with Philadelphia. Working a give-and-go with Mikael Backlund, Farabee passed the puck into the corner then skated in from the point and got it again and ripped a shot past Dobes, who was screened by Blake Coleman.

KEY STAT

The Flames were 2-for-2 on the penalty kill and are now a perfect 17-for-17 over the last five games. Last time they’ve gone five or more games without giving up a power-play goal was a six-game stretch from Dec. 21, 2023 to Jan. 4, 2024.

UP NEXT

Canadiens: Visit the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday.

Flames: Host the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 8, 2025.

Darren Haynes, The Canadian Press