Calgary Wranglers game day: Looking for a midweek win against Oilers affiliate
7 months ago
The Calgary Wranglers continue their road trip this week, stopping in Bakersfield, California to face the Condors. This will be a one-game match-up on Wednesday evening before they head to Colorado for the weekend. They’re looking to bring back their winning personas after a few disappointing games over the last week and a bit. Hopefully, the reinforcements from the Flames contribute to that.
Projected lineups
Calgary
Dryden Hunt – Ben Jones – Matt Coronato
Rory Kerins – Cole Schwindt – Adam Klapka
Emilio Pettersen – Ilya Nikolaev – Mitch McLain
Lucas Ciona – Brett Sutter – Alex Gallant
Ilya Solovyov – Colton Pooman
Yan Kuznetsov – Mark Pysyk
Jonathan Aspirot – Brady Lyle
Dustin Wolf
Oscar Dansk
Bakersfield
Ty Tullio – Greg McKegg – Xavier Bourgault
Drake Caggiula – Lane Pederson – Cameron Wright
Raphael Lavoie – Jayden Grubbe – Seth Griffith
Carter Savoie – Dino Kambeitz – Ethan De Jong
Philip Broberg – Philip Kemp
Noel Hoefenmayer – Max Wanner
Markus Niemelainen – Cam Dineen
Jack Campbell
Olivier Rodrigue
Leaders
Calgary
Matt Coronato – 16 GP, 8G, 12A
Ben Jones – 24GP, 8G, 12A
Adam Klapka – 24GP, 9G, 9A
Bakersfield
Drake Caggiula – 12GP, 2G, 10A
Seth Griffith – 16GP, 2G, 10A
Raphael Lavoie – 14GP, 8G, 3A
Notes and expectations
Calgary goes into this game on the heels of a three-game losing streak, but thankfully, help is on the way. The Flames reassigned Ilya Solovyov and Dustin Wolf back to the Wranglers on Sunday and both should be with the team for this game against the Edmonton Oilers affiliate. With these two back, Jarrod Gourley and Connor Murphy will likely return to the Rapid City Rush.
It will be good timing for Wolf to come back as the dynamic between Wranglers goaltending and scoring has not been levelling out as of late. Too many opposing goals are making it into the back of the net and Calgary is unable to keep pace with their scoring. In Saturday’s game, four goals were scored on 21 shots on Connor Murphy. The fifth goal came on an empty net so can’t hold that one against him. It was also his first start in the AHL so the expectations were not over the top on that one.
In the game before that, Oscar Dansk faced 37 shots and was able to stop 34 of them. Giving up three goals is still within a range to come back but the Wranglers were unable to connect. They had no goals on 22 shots. Their first loss of this stretch on Dec. 10 was their best shot of winning with a 4-3 overtime loss. They’re at a point where they need to be more competitive in the games they play in.
The scoring streaks that went into the last two-game series have since ended so it’s time for those to start again for the likes of Matt Coronato, Cole Schwindt and Rory Kerins or other guys on the roster need to step up. This team is also struggling with special teams and keeping their discipline.
It could just be the opponent but against San Jose, Calgary gave up seven penalties on both nights. Their opportunities on that man advantage have not made up for it much either. Their power play percentage is pretty low for this squad with 17% going into this game against Bakersfield. This puts them sixth in the division in this category and 21st in the league. They’re among the top teams in the league for penalty kill percentage with an 84.6% success rate.
Whatever adjustments they make in this game against Bakersfield, hopefully, it proves to have a better outcome than the last three match-ups. Calgary still holds the top spot in the Pacific but that spot is very much fair game for their division rivals. The puck drop for this game will be at 7:30 p.m. MT. Streaming for this game can be found on AHL.tv for a fee. FlamesNation contributors Mike Gould and I will have updates on X (formerly Twitter).
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