Calgary Wranglers game day: AHL Flames and Oilers face off on same night as their parent teams
6 months ago
The Calgary Wranglers play a back-to-back weekend in two different cities with game two taking place on Saturday night in Bakersfield. On Friday, they fell in a physical battle against the Coachella Valley Firebirds. Oscar Dansk had a solid night in net and the Wranglers got a trio of goals but could not come out on top. With a 4-3 loss to brush off, they’re going to want to come into town against the Oilers affiliate with a clear agenda to win.
Projected lineups
Calgary
Emilio Pettersen – Clark Bishop – Walker Duehr
Mark Rassell – Ben Jones – Rory Kerins
William Stromgren – Cole Schwindt – Mitch McLain
Lucas Ciona – Ilya Nikolaev – Alex Gallant
Ilya Solovyov – Mark Pysyk
Yan Kuznetsov – Colton Poolman
Jonathan Aspirot – Brady Lyle
Oscar Dansk
Connor Murphy
Bakersfield
Raphael Lavoie – Dylan Holloway – Lane Pederson
Ty Tullio – Greg McKegg – Xavier Bourgault
Drake Caggiula – Brad Malone – Seth Griffith
Matvey Petrov – Jayden Grubbe – Dino Kambeitz
Philip Broberg – Ben Gleason
Alex Peters – Max Wanner
Markus Niemelainen – Noel Hoefenmayer
Jack Campbell
Olivier Rodrigue
Leaders
Calgary
Matt Coronato – 27GP, 12G, 17A (Inactive on NHL call-up)
Emilio Pettersen – 36GP, 7G, 19A
Ben Jones – 36GP, 11G, 12A
Bakersfield
Drake Caggiula – 21GP, 6G, 16A
Seth Griffith – 26GP, 4G, 16A
Raphael Lavoie – 24GP, 11G, 7A
Notes and expectations
While the Wranglers are coming off a loss, the Condors are coming off a win on Wednesday night over the Colorado Eagles. Even with the opposite results in their last games, the Wranglers are the favourites in this game with their continued second-place spot in the Pacific Division standings and a 22-11-3-0 record. The Condors are down at eighth place with a 16-11-1-2 record.
These two have seen a bit of each other so far this season with three games taking place back in late 2023. They opened their season series with a back-to-back on November 14th and 15th, where the Wranglers earned the sweep. Their last game was on December 20th when the Wranglers fell 4-2. Last year, the Wranglers only lost to the Condors once all season.
These two still have a bit of that Battle Alberta rivalry which makes for a fun game regardless of the game history or standings. The Condors are the Oilers’ affiliate and the battle of the prospects sometimes brings up familiar tension. The Condors had a lot of trouble staying disciplined in their last match-up as they racked up 27 minutes in penalties. If that sort of thing happens again, it might be a good chance for the Wranglers to get their power play going again.
Even with just a day between games, some lineup changes took place going into this game. Oliver Kylington has officially concluded his conditioning stint and will make his way back up to the Flames to try and earn his spot back. Wranglers rookie all-star Matt Coronato also got the assignment to the big club after missing Friday’s game and drawing suspicion a transaction was looming.
Dustin Wolf might not be too far out either. Jacob Markstrom is no longer listed as injured and while making the effort to fly down to California might not be worth it for Saturday night, Wolf could very well be back with the team come next weeks road games.
We will see if Saturday ignites enough of a fire underneath Calgary to get themselves back on the winning side of things. Especially with their parent teams facing off on the same day. This game is set to start at 8:00 p.m. MT and you can stream for a fee on AHL.tv. FlamesNation contributors Mike Gould and I will have updates on X (formerly Twitter).
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