Calgary Wranglers game day: Trying to contain Glenn Gawdin and the Gulls
1 month ago
This week in Calgary Wranglers hockey, they have picked up four of the possible six points they could have earned so far. They sit at a 1-0-1-1 record on the week and hope to add two more points with a game against the San Diego Gulls on Sunday evening. With the sixth-place Wranglers taking on the ninth-place Gulls, this should be Calgary’s game on paper, but their recent track record against San Diego doesn’t make it that simple.
Projected lineups
Calgary
Jakob Pelletier – Sam Morton – Ben Jones
William Stromgren – Cole Schwindt – Adam Klapka
Brett Sutter – Clark Bishop – Mitch McLain
Matthew Wedman – Riley Damiani – Jonathan Aspirot
Artem Grushnikov – Jordan Oesterle
Jeremie Poirier – Ilya Solovyov
Colton Poolman – Yan Kuznetsov
Oscar Dansk
Connor Murphy
San Diego
Chase De Leo – Glenn Gawdin – Judd Caulfield
Nikita Nesterenko – Andrew Agozzino – Pavol Regenda
Brayden Tracey – Nathan Gaucher – Josh Lopina
Sasha Pastujov – Jan Mysak – Jaxsen Wiebe
Trevor Carrick – Luka Profaca
Tyson Hinds – Robert Hagg
Nick Wolff – Drew Helleson
Tomas Suchanek
Alex Stalock
Leaders
Calgary
Matt Coronato – 40GP, 15G, 27A (Inactive on NHL call-up)
Ben Jones – 61GP, 20G, 20A
Adam Klapka – 55GP, 18G, 19A
San Diego
Andrew Agozzino – 58GP, 17G, 31A
Glenn Gawdin – 56GP, 18G, 28A
Chase De Leo – 40GP, 13G, 25A
Notes and expectations
Calgary and San Diego have only seen each other three times this season and none of these games were even anywhere close. Their first meeting in November resulted in an 8-3 win for the Wranglers and their last series on February 9th and 10th ended in a sweep for the Gulls with 5-0 and 7-4 final scores.
In their last series against each other, one of the biggest contributors to the Gulls’ success, was a ghost of the Flames’ past, Glenn Gawdin. Gawdin was absolutely on fire against his former organization and played for the Stockton Heat for four years up until they relocated to Calgary and rebranded to the Wranglers. Gawdin had a goal and four assists in one game and a goal and two assists in the other for a total of eight points in a two-day span.
It didn’t matter if he saw Dustin Wolf or Oscar Dansk either. Gawdin was scoring on everyone. Some of his other teammates like Chase De Leo, Andrew Agozzino and Olen Zellweger also had a lot of success in their head-to-head so hopefully the team has done some homework since then. A small relief for Calgary is that Zellweger has since been called up and is playing with the Anaheim Ducks.
For this game, switching back to Connor Murphy might not be a bad idea. Dansk has started in two games this week and Murphy in one. They only have a day break between their next series as they’ll be right back at it on Tuesday against the Coachella Valley Firebirds. With Dustin Wolf up with the Flames too, they have to be careful about their game management for their netminders. Murphy has seen the least of the Gulls and still gives them a chance to win with the way he has been playing.
This game wraps up Calgary’s four-game week and will just be a single game in San Diego before they move on to their next series. Puck drop is set for 6:00 p.m. MT and you can follow along with the stream on AHL.tv. FlamesNation contributors, Mike Gould and I will also have updates on X (formerly Twitter).
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