When the NHL season began, the names Devan Dubnyk and Andrew Hammond probably would have gone unrecognized by the vast majority of fans. Dubnyk was a journeyman goaltender who had spent most of his career in relative anonymity, while Andrew Hammond’s NHL experience was limited to one game in late February of 2014.

Fast forward to late March, and both of these previously unknown goalies are now the talk of the league. Both came out of nowhere to right the ships of their struggling teams, reaffirming every Wild and Senators fan’s belief in miracles.

Let’s rewind a bit to January 15th. The Minnesota Wild - a team which many experts predicted could make a Stanley Cup run before the season began - were in a tailspin. With a mediocre record of 18-19-5, they were mired at the very bottom of the Central Division. Even worse, they were in the midst of a dreadful six game losing streak in which they were not just losing games by narrow margins, but being badly outplayed, losing games by a total of five and six goals. Clearly, Minnesota’s goaltending tandem of Darcy Kuemper and Niklas Backstrom was not getting the job done. A change needed to be made.

And that pivotal change was made on January 15th, although it did not seem like that big of a deal at the time. The Arizona Coyotes traded Dubnyk to the Wild for a 2015 third round draft pick. It was a good move for the Wild, since they desperately needed goaltending help and since Dubnyk was playing relatively well for a struggling Coyotes team. However, nobody expected what would happen next.



The Wild placed Dubnyk in net the very night he was traded in a must-win game against the lowly Buffalo Sabres. Dubnyk recorded a shutout in his Wild debut, a 7-0 thrashing. From that point, both Dubnyk and the Wild never looked back. Dubnyk has started all 30 games for the Wild since he arrived in Minnesota, boasting a sterling record of 22-6-1 with a goals against average of 1.77 and a save percentage of .935.

Perhaps more impressively, six of the seven losses during this span were by only one goal. Gone were the six goal blowouts that Minnesota suffered before Dubnyk’s arrival. His great goaltending has helped give the Wild a chance to win in every game they play. Thanks to Dubnyk, the Wild have emerged from the cellar of their division, sitting comfortably in a wild card spot and awaiting the arrival of the playoffs.





A similar story is currently playing out in Ottawa. After an embarrassing blowout loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on February 16th, the Senators fell to 22-23-10, ten points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild card spot. It looked like Ottawa would be focusing on the McEichel sweepstakes until they were struck by a (rather fortunate) bit of misfortune. In the loss to Carolina, Sens goaltender Robin Lehner got injured, forcing Ottawa to call up inexperienced netminder Andrew Hammond to make his first career NHL start.

This first start would be a tough test, as Hammond was matched up against red-hot Carey Price and the Montreal Canadiens. However, Hammond managed to out-duel Price, leading the Sens to a 4-2 win. Four games later, Hammond led the Sens to an extremely rare California sweep, beating the Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, and San Jose Sharks all on the road. The legend of the Hamburglar had been born.

The Sens have played 16 games since Hammond burst upon the scene, and the only regulation loss in that span came with Craig Anderson in net. You read that right. With Hammond in net, Ottawa has only lost one game: a shootout loss to Devan Dubnyk and the Wild. Hammond’s 13-0-1 stretch has catapulted the Sens into a tie with the Bruins for the final wild card spot, a prospect which seemed impossible just one month ago.

Both the Wild and the Senators seemed completely out of the playoff picture just a few short months ago. Now, both teams have a decent chance to do some serious damage in the playoffs if they can make it. Astoundingly, both teams have former journeymen goalies to thank for their rapid rise in the standings. If Carey Price hadn’t been playing out of his mind the entire year, Hammond and Dubnyk would be in the Vezina conversation, and perhaps even the Hart conversation. It just goes to show that contributions can come from the unlikeliest of places, and miracles are not just the stuff of fairy tales.

Edited by Patrick Mullen.