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Dubnyk hit for 5 goals for 1st time this season

Brad Rempel / USA TODAY Sports

Finally rocked.

Devan Dubnyk was beaten five times for the first time this season Wednesday night in Calgary, as the Flames jumped on the Minnesota Wild on the second night of a back-to-back, defeating the Western Conference leader 5-1.

The Vezina Trophy front-runner, who rode a 20-2-2 stretch coming in, allowed two or fewer goals in 27 of his 38 starts entering the contest. Before the loss, he had more shutouts (five) than starts where he allowed more than three goals.

But despite the positive results, Dubnyk's game-to-game trajectory suggests this was a long time coming. Five weeks to be exact.

Each of his five starts where he's allowed at least four goals this season have come since the holiday break, and during a 13-game run where he's stopped the puck at a pedestrian .903 rate.

He entered the holiday freeze with a spectacular .948 save percentage.

With Braden Holtby riding an upward trend, sporting better than a .935 save rate over the previous two months, and Sergei Bobrovsky's numbers remaining comparably solid, we might have a Vezina race after all.

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