Calgary Wranglers recap: Ben Jones and Adam Klapka score a pair in 4-0 win over Tucson
8 months ago
The Calgary Wranglers and the Tucson Roadrunners played the back half of their series on Wednesday night. The Roadrunners beat the Wranglers 3-2 on the previous night and in this game, it was all Wranglers. Ben Jones and Adam Klapka both scored a pair and they shutout the Roadrunners in a 4-0 final.
Lineup notes
Wranglers head coach Trent Cull made a few more tweaks to his lineup in game two of this series. Calgary captain Brett Sutter and his linemate William Stromgren were taken out of the lineup and in their place, Lucas Ciona and Ilya Nikolaev slotted back in. This is the first game Sutter has been scratched from this year and the second game Stromgren has not skated in.
Game at a glance
Dustin Wolf was back in net for the Wranglers this game against the same netminder for Tucson, Matthew Villalta. A cool local story that affected the other side of the ice featured Carl Tetachuk, a netminder from the University of Calgary. He dressed for the Roadrunners as a backup but did not need to be called upon.
The Wranglers had some early opportunities in this game to try and kick them out of the funk they’ve been in the last couple of games. Tucson took an early penalty and Calgary got the first few shots on goal. Villalta continued to turn them away and around the five minute mark, the Roadrunners were able to start challenging Wolf.
The pace of the game slowed right down for about seven minutes with either side unable to register a shot. The Roadrunners got a bit of time in the Wranglers zone just past the midway mark of the period but it wasn’t too concerning. The Wranglers would get a power play at 16:03 that only two shots were registered on.
In the last 57 seconds of the first, Dryden Hunt and Nathan Smith had some words and physical apprehension for each other and took offsetting penalties for roughing that carried into the second. The first finished with no scoring and the Wranglers led the Roadrunners 9-5 in shots.
In the second, the Wranglers and Roadrunners traded shots until Calgary finally kicked off the scoring. 5:09 into the second period, Ilya Solovyov passed the puck up to Adam Klapka, who beat Villalta’s glove side faster than he could make the lateral save.
The Roadrunners put the effort in to answer back but Wolf kept turning their shots aside. In the second half of the period, it was mostly Wranglers effort-wise. The Roadrunners took a pair of penalties and the home team was looking to make it two. Matthew Villalta continued his solid play and turned away 12 of 13 Wranglers shots.
The Wranglers had a 1-0 lead at the end of 40 minutes and out-shot the Roadrunners once again in this frame. In the third, the Roadrunners took an early high-sticking penalty and just 12 seconds into the power play, Adam Klapka struck again.
Klapka’s second of the night came 1:53 into the third period when he positioned himself in his typical spot in front of the net and tipped in a pass from Matt Coronato. Jordan Oesterle picked up the secondary assist.
After this, Klapka did have his eye on scoring his third of the night a just narrowly missed an opportunity to do so. The Roadrunners had a run of penalties that weren’t helping their cause and by the 9:53 mark, the Wranglers were on a five-on-three.
This turned into a four-on-four when Klapka was called for goaltender interference so he couldn’t score a hat trick goal on this power play if that was the plan. Instead, Ben Jones scored on the four-on-four. Emilio Pettersen made a very smart heads-up play and picked up on Jones being undefended in the Roadrunners zone and ripped a one-timer past Villalta. Brady Lyle picked up the other assist.
As time ran down in regulation, Tucson did not opt to pull their netminder for the extra attacker. Instead, the Wranglers further put this game away with Ben Jones getting sprung on a breakaway and scoring his second goal of the night with 56 seconds to go in the third. Matt Coronato picked up his second assist of the night off this goal.
This game came to an end and the Wranglers beat the Roadrunners 4-0 to end their season-high two-game losing streak. Dustin Wolf picked up his second shutout of the season and the Wranglers ended their Tucson series on the right foot so they can gear up for their weekend games.
Shots finished 34-24 for Calgary and the Wranglers swept the three stars of the night. Ben Jones earned the third star, Dustin Wolf earned the second star and Adam Klapka earned the first star.
Scoring stat summary
Ilya Solovyov – 1A
Jordan Oesterle – 1A
Ben Jones – 2G
Brady Lyle – 1A
Adam Klapka – 2G
Matt Coronato – 2A
Jordan Oesterle – 1A
Emilio Pettersen – 1A
Highlights
Failed to load video.
Next up
The Wranglers have a few days between their next series and won’t have the hassle of travelling this weekend. Their homestand will continue against the Abbotsford Canucks on Saturday and Sunday. Both games are set to start at 1:00 p.m. MT.
Recent articles from Paige Siewert
