It’s become his thing and something that no other goalkeeper does.
“There’s no reason to change, I don’t think,” Walstad said after the game. “I think I’m just as eager to do it now as probably the fans are to seeing it, so no one’s going anywhere.”
The 23-year-old Volstad made 39 saves in a 3-2 shootout win over the Colorado Avalanche on Friday, ending the Avs’ 10 consecutive win streak.
The rookie net minder now leads the league in goals against average (1.93), save percentage (.938) and shutouts (3). They are 7-0-2 on the season and have yet to lose in regulation. Walstead is now 6-0-0 with a 1.14 goals-against average, .967 save percentage and three shutouts in his last six starts.
Colorado came into Friday’s game against the rookie goaltender on the back of ten consecutive wins. After blocking three shots in overtime and 39 shots overall, the Wild and Avs went to the shootout.
Wallstadt went 7-for-7 in the shootout and left the field with a score of 2-3. Only Martin Necas scored on Volstad.
After Matt Boldy defeated Scott Wedgwood, leading in NHL wins, Volstad had to make a save to win it. After stopping the NHL’s leading goal-scorer and point getter, Nathan MacKinnon, Volstad was tasked with stopping the NHL’s leading point-getter among defensemen, Cale Makar.
St. Paul’s wall stood and handed the Avalanche their first loss in 11 games and their first since November 1.
“I think I let him make the first move. MacKinnon, it’s tough when he starts cutting the puck off his stick, he moves fast. I’ve never played with him before. I’ve never seen anything like that before. So it was fun. It’s definitely where you want to be; you want to compete against the best players,” Volstad said on the thought process in the shootout. “I love shootouts, and it’s very special to do it against the best shootout pickers in the world. I felt like I had really good reads on both, or all three, but I lost my edge on the first one. So otherwise I would have saved it.”
Wallstead has three wins in three shootouts this year and has allowed one goal on ten attempts. Of these three, he has celebrated only once by shooting an arrow before being surrounded by his team.
Where did it come from?
“I have no idea. I think I probably saw it when I was younger in the NHL or somewhere. I thought it looked cool,” Volstad said. “I don’t think a lot of other goalies do that right now, so maybe that’s my job right now.”
But, 92.5 FM Denver’s Altitude Sports Radio is not a fan.
“Makar tried to go five holes, Wallstead made the save and he’s celebrating like he won the Stanley Cup. He didn’t.”
Wallstadt may not have won the Stanley Cup, but they beat the best team in the world, as Connor McGehee said on the call, ending the Avalanche’s ten-game winning streak after stopping the world’s best player and the world’s best defenseman.
They can call Walstead’s celebration all they want, but the rookie joins a long list of Minnesota players who have sent Colorado home unhappy. For a franchise that has been bounced twice in unforgettable Game 7 fashion (2003 and 2014), you’d think a simple arrow pose would barely crack the top 10 most painful moments.
If anything, Wallstead kept it respectable. Maybe he could have pantomimed the entire handshake line or Andrew Brunet’s celebration from 2003 when the Wild beat one of the best rosters of all time, and Colorado fans would have instantly recognized the choreography.
Volstad’s performance this year even inspired a T-shirt that the entire team wore before the game on Friday.
Where it came from or whether he had expected it, Wallstead had no idea.
“I don’t know. I saw it on Instagram or something, I think I got tagged in it. And I thought it looked bad. And then I definitely didn’t expect it to be in the locker room. A weird feeling. I came here and I was like, ‘I asked Acker, should I wear this or is it weird to wear your own shirt?’ Yeah, that’s why I didn’t wear it,” Wallstead said.
It’s so cute that even head coach John Hynes wants to get his hands on it.
“No, I’ve seen all the t-shirts around but I have to get one. I didn’t get one before the game but maybe now.”
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‘Structure over speed’: How the Wild’s structure neutralized Colorado’s elite rush game
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– Kirill Kaprizov became the fastest player to score 200 goals in Wild history.
– Marcus Foligno was placed on injured reserve, week-to-week.
– Vinny Hinostroza out for 4 to 6 weeks with a lower body injury.
– The Wild will commit to a goalie rotation between Gustavsson and Wallstad.
– The Wild’s Marco Rossi remains week-to-week with a lower body injury.
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