Calgary Wranglers recap: Missed opportunities on the power play bite back in 2-1 loss
6 months ago
The Calgary Wranglers were able to find a way past the Ontario Reign with a late goal on Thursday night but Friday night did not yield the same result. The struggles on the power play especially showed themselves for the home team and they fell to the Reign in a 2-1 decision.
Lineup notes
While Thursday brought an exciting addition to the Wranglers in Oliver Kylington, Friday revealed he had a groin tweak that would take him out of the second half of this series. The team released an injury update prior to puck drop with the status of Kylington and their other injured players.
Thankfully, Kylington is just day-to-day for now and may be ready to play by their road trip next Friday. Jakob Pelletier and Kevin Rooney were also added to this report as week-to-week. Everyone else’s status comes as expected.
Game at a glance
The goaltending matchup for this second game in as many days changed slightly. It was still Dustin Wolf in net for the Wranglers but the Reign switched it up to have Jacob Ingham in net on their end. It was a pretty even start to the game but an odd goal from the Ontario Reign set an unfortunate tone for the Wranglers.
6:54 into the first period, Akil Thomas took a wrist shot that looked as if it rolled over Wolf’s pads and into the net. It was an uncharacteristic goal against Wolf but still gave the Reign the early lead. The Wranglers got a few shots off in the next shift then were left defending for much of the next five minutes.
The first penalty of the night went to Matt Coronato for holding at 12:38 but the Wranglers were able to kill this off with just two shots against and no further scoring for their visiting competition. At 17:09, Calgary evened things up on the scoreboard with a goal from Clark Bishop.
Mitch McLain broke up an Ontario pass behind their net and got it up to Bishop who placed the puck top corner. Matt Coronato also picked up an assist on this goal.
That wrapped up the scoring for the first period and the opening frame finished up with a 1-1 tie. Shots were also evened up 11-11. The second period is probably where the Wranglers will spend most of the video review time as it brought the most missed opportunities. They had four different power play opportunities to try and generate some offence on and just didn’t connect.
It started with a hooking call against the Reign at 1:36. The Wranglers did not register any shots on this power play then got another one at 3:38. Only one shot was generated on that power play and the majority of four minutes with a man advantage went to waste.
The Reign were called for a tripping penalty at 9:23 and again, only one shot on goal for the Wranglers. The next penalty was at 17:20 and only Cole Schwindt and Rory Kerins registered a shot. In those four power plays, only four shots on goal. Not the best way to capitalize on those opportunities.
The Wranglers got a look into a successful power play on the other end of the ice when Ben Jones was called for hooking at 18:34. Three seconds before the end of the period, the puck was in the back of the net with another goal from Akil Thomas.
After two complete periods, the score was 2-1 and the Wranglers outshot the Reign 11-8. Calgary tried to get things going again in the third period and did a bit more with the two power plays in this frame but still could not get another puck in the back of the net.
Dustin Wolf was pulled with 2:10 to go in regulation and the game ended the same way the third started. With a 2-1 final score. Shots for Calgary in the third were 15-5 and they outshot their winning opponents 37-24 through the whole competition.
Akil Thomas got the first start of the night, Reign netminder Jacob Ingham got the second star and Clark Bishop earned the third star. The Wrangler’s power play went zero for six in this game and zero for 10 in this back-to-back total. Definitely a part of their game to focus on in practice in the next week leading up to their road trip.
Highlights
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Next up
The Wranglers have wrapped up a lengthy eight-game homestand and will hit the road for the next few weeks leading up to the AHL All-Star game and break. They will travel to California next weekend for a split series in Coachella Valley on Friday and Bakersfield on Saturday. Both games are set to start at 8:00 p.m. MT.
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