Calgary Wranglers series preview: Wrapping up the week with the Reign
8 months ago
The busy week of Calgary Wranglers hockey continues with a weekend road series against the Ontario Reign. Calgary went 2-0 against the Bakersfield Condors earlier this week and have their sights set on their fifth and sixth straight wins. The Wranglers have only lost one game in regulation all year and after Wednesday’s win, they have solidified their spot back at the top of the league.
Projected lineups
Calgary
Dryden Hunt – Cole Schwindt – Matt Coronato
Rory Kerins – Ben Jones – Adam Klapka
Emilio Pettersen – Clark Bishop – Ilya Nikolaev
Lucas Ciona – Brett Sutter – William Stromgren
Jordan Oesterle – Jonathan Aspirot
Ilya Solovyov – Brady Lyle
Yan Kuznetsov – Colton Poolman
Dustin Wolf
Oscar Dansk
Ontario
Jaret Anderson-Dolan – T.J. Tynan – Tyler Madden
Charles Hudon – Alex Turcotte – Martin Chromiak
Taylor Ward – Mikhail Maltsev – Akil Thomas
Francesco Pinelli – Samuel Helenius – Jacob Doty
Jacob Movarare – Brandt Clarke
Kim Nousiainen – Steven Santini
Cole Krygier – Kevin Connauton
David Rittich
Erik Portillo
Leaders
Calgary
Ben Jones – 12GP, 3G, 8A
Connor Zary – 6GP, 1G, 9A (inactive on NHL call-up)
Adam Klapka – 12GP, 5G, 4A
Ontario
Charles Hudon – 12GP, 7G, 5A
T.J. Tynan – 12GP, 1G , 11A
Brandt Clarke – 12GP, 3G, 7A
Notes and expectations
There is magic in the locker room of the Wranglers. We saw it last season and it has continued into this year. With the best of the Wranglers either earning spots with the Flames or leaving the team in the summer, the expectation was they would fall in the standings and face some adversity. That just hasn’t been the case so far.
They played their last four games without Dustin Wolf, Connor Zary, Jeremie Poirier, Martin Pospisil, and Nick DeSimone. Not to mention, Jakob Pelletier and Kevin Rooney have not even been options all season due to injury. No one would falter them if the results were not there. But yet, they prevail.
At this point, it is no fluke. The chemistry and buy-in this team has is unbelievable. Even a head coaching change has not altered this. It might be Brett Sutter’s leadership style or just a combination of the right kind of guys, but this team continues to be special.
They will face Sutter’s previous team, the Ontario Reign for their first match-up of the season this weekend. Last year, the Wranglers had the better of their games against the Reign and finished their season series 7-0-1-0. This season, the Reign are near the middle of the Pacific Division so far and yes, the David Rittich in their projected lineup is the same Rittich that played for the Flames from 2016-2021.
Calgary should face Rittich in at least one of their games this weekend as he’s been the go-to guy for the Reign. In eight starts this season, Rittich has a 4-3-1 record. His game has obviously taken a downturn if he is in this league and where he stands, he does not crack the top 20 goaltenders in the AHL for GAA or save percentage. Who knows what emotions may come up when he plays his former organization, however.
The Wranglers’ second series of the week kicks off on Friday night at 8:00 p.m. MT. They’ll have Saturday off and wrap up their week on Sunday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. MT. You can stream these games on AHL.tv for a fee and FlamesNation contributors Mike Gould and I will have updates on X (formerly Twitter).
This article is presented to you by BK Bowfort Liquor Store!
Serving Calgary since 1997. Located at 97 Bowridge Drive, NW.
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