Calgary Wranglers recap: Low scoring game ends in a shootout loss
5 months ago
The Calgary Wranglers were fresh off their win against the Manitoba Moose on Tuesday and were right back on it on Wednesday night for a Valentine’s Day date against the same team. Tuesday’s game ended in a 4-2 final for Calgary and this game went all the way to a shootout. The Wranglers unfortunately did not score in the shootout and fell 2-1.
Lineup notes
The Flames called Cole Schwindt back up to the team after just one game with the Wranglers. Jakob Pelletier is out of the lineup on a day-to-day upper-body injury, which is a sigh of relief after his lengthy injury this year. So the Flames are carrying an extra body until Pelletier is ready to go.
Wranglers lines
Dryden Hunt – Ben Jones – Matt Coronato
Emilio Pettersen – Brett Sutter – William Stromgren
Adam Klapka – Mark Duarte – Rory Kerins
Lucas Ciona – Ilya Nikolaev – Alex Gallant
Ilya Solovyov – Jonathan Aspirot
Colton Poolman – Yan Kuznetsov
Sam Jardine – Brady Lyle
Connor Murphy
Oscar Dansk
Game at a glance
The Wranglers decided to go with Connor Murphy again between the pipes and the Moose switched things up with Collin Delia in net for the visitors. It was a pretty smooth first period. Not a lot of stoppages or huge scoring chances. The action picked up in the second half when the first two penalties of the game were dealt.
Matt Coronato was called for slashing at 13:34 and Calgary was able to kill this penalty off with little issues. The Moose took a penalty at 17:28 that allowed the Wranglers to score their first goal of the game. Jonathan Aspirot received a pass from William Stromgren and took the shot. Ben Jones was right on the doorstep for the rebound and buried the puck at 18:57.
That wrapped up the action of the first period and Calgary had a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes of play. Shots after the first were 11-7 for the Wranglers. In the second period, Calgary was on an early power play just 89 seconds into the frame and after a stoppage in play, the officials reviewed a play in tight that could’ve been another possible power play goal for the home team.
After review, the officials observed the puck did not cross the line and no goal was called. There wasn’t much of a protest from anyone on that call. The second period had a similar pace to the first half of the opening frame. A few chances for each side but nothing to change the scoreboard.
After 40 complete minutes, the Wranglers held their 1-0 lead and were outshot by the Moose 12-8 in the middle frame. The first half of the third didn’t have a whole lot of action beyond a few penalties. At 9:09 the Moose were called for a too many men bench minor and right as this penalty expired, Manitoba got out on a breakaway, snowed Murphy and jammed the puck past him. Dominic Toninato scored the equalizer for the Moose at 11:12.
This dialled up the intensity a bit and the Wranglers had some of the best opportunities to pull ahead in the last minute of regulation. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get anything past Delia and this game would go to overtime. In the third, Manitoba outshot Calgary 13-7.
Overtime was action-packed. To start, Matt Coronato, Ben Jones and Jonathan Aspirot were out for the first shift. Coronato got a look that missed the net. Then on the next shift, Dryden Hunt got a cleared puck to the face and still skated out the rest of his shift.
The Moose got some time in Calgary’s zone and had three back-to-back chances to win the game. The visitors had a chance to bat the puck in, tip the puck in, then tried a five-hole shot that Murphy held onto. The next rush to the other end had Brett Sutter with a chance on a rebound then Ben Jones with a goal that came after the post lifted off the ice so it was waved off.
The extra frame didn’t solve the tie and the shots finished up at 5-3 favouring the Moose. These two went to decide things in a shootout. The Wranglers went for Rory Kerins and Matt Coronato for the first shooter and they both did not score. On the other end, Nikita Chibrikov and Brad Lambert were the shooters for Manitoba and both scored on their attempts.
The Wranglers wrapped up their homestand with a split against the Moose and three out of a possible four points in this series. The final score in this one was 2-1 and shots finished up at 38-29 for Manitoba.
Highlights
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Next up
The Wranglers have one more game this week that will take place on the weekend. They hit the road to play the Abbotsford Canucks on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. MT. That series will continue into next week for a Family Day matinee on Monday.
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