Calgary Wranglers recap: Rory Kerins heats up with three points in 6-2 victory
7 months ago
The Calgary Wranglers hosted the Manitoba Moose at the Scotiabank Saddledome in front of a crowd of over 5,600. They gave their fans a good showing with a game full of action and excitement. The Wranglers won their third match-up against the Moose this season with a final score of 6-2.
Lineup notes
Mark Pysyk made his debut with the team in this game. He cleared waivers last weekend and was assigned to the AHL affiliate but was not on the road with the team to skate with them. He wore number 13 for the team and skated on a pairing with Yan Kuznetsov. Mark Duarte also made his Wranglers debut in this game. He started the season with the Rapid City Rush and has put up seven points in 17 games in the ECHL.
There was also quite a substantial absence from the lineup, resulting in the Wranglers skating with an extra defenceman and down one forward. That absence was Matt Coronato. This started a swirl of call-up rumours but nothing was confirmed. Coronato was also not listed in the pre-game injury update. Will Riedell is typically a defender but played a forward role in this game to fill in.
Brett Sutter appears to be nearing a return as his status went from week to week to day to day. Clark Bishop and Sam Jardine are new additions to the injury report and Jeremie Poirier’s status is not expected to change anytime soon as he recovers from surgery.
Game at a glance
The goaltending match-ups consisted of Oscar Dansk on the Wranglers’ end and Collin Delia for the Moose. Both netminders settled into this game without facing many high-danger shot attempts. The period would go 14:50 without a penalty call then Brady Lyle was called for hooking. The Moose were called for interference about 40 seconds later.
The Moose would strike first on the four on four when Danny Zhilkin snuck the first puck past Oscar Dansk. He was in the zone with a body position to make a pass but ended up taking a shot on Dansk’s short side and put the away team up 1-0.
This score remained through to the end of the first period and the Wranglers had the narrow lead in shots after one frame by a 9-8 count. In the second period, the Moose were called for slashing just 48 seconds in and by the 1:01 mark, Calgary evened things up. Emilio Pettersen scored his fifth goal of the season with a blast on the power play that was actually his 100th point in the AHL. Dryden Hunt and Nick DeSimone assisted on this milestone goal.
A bit of rough stuff boiled over at 5:47 when Mitch McLain took on Tyrel Bauer in a fight. McLain was sticking up for William Stromgren, who just missed a big collision along the boards that would’ve been a dangerous knee-on-knee hit. This left the Wranglers shorthanded with Rory Kerins serving the instigating minor and McLain called for 15 penalty minutes for an instigating misconduct and a fighting major.
This run of penalties was successfully killed off then later in the period, Adam Klapka pulled the Wranglers ahead with a rebound shot he elevated over the opposing netminder. Brady Lyle and Rory Kerins assisted on this second goal of the night for the home team. This goal came at 15:45.
By 18:40, the Wranglers got up to a two-goal lead with a power play goal from Rory Kerins. Cole Schwindt set him up from a pass behind the net and Kerins delivered with a well-placed shot. Jonathan Aspirot also picked up the secondary assist.
That would conclude the scoring in the second period and the Wranglers were on top 3-1 after 40 complete minutes of play. They had an explosion of shots in the middle frame, out-shooting their opponents 19-5.
In the third, the Moose had a little bit of fight left in them when Brad Lambert attempted to swap the momentum with a goal 5:46 into the period. He wasn’t very well defended in his approach into the Wranglers zone and had the time and space to shoot the puck past Dansk.
Calgary didn’t let that one sit very long as 45 seconds later, Kerins scored his second goal of the night off a deflection and picked up his third point of the game. Nick DeSimone and Jonathan Aspirot earned both their second assists of the night on Kerins’ eighth goal of the season.
Mitch McLain would be the next scorer for the Wranglers at 8:59 when he deflected Nick DeSimone’s shot into the back of the net. This put DeSimone up to three assists on the night.
The last goal of the night would also be off the sticks of the Wranglers with Cole Schwindt receiving a set-up pass from Adam Klapka that he buried top corner.
The Wranglers earned themselves control of this game with a great period and a half effort and maintained their four-goal lead to the end of the game. With this differential in the score, Manitoba did not bother pulling Delia for the extra attacker late in the third. They did double up the Wranglers in shots in the third, however, 18-9.
The Wranglers picked up the win with a final score of 6-2. The shot count finished up at 37-31 for Calgary and Oscar Dansk earned his sixth win of the season. Rory Kerins was the first star of the night, Adam Klapka was the second and Cole Schwindt was the third.
Scoring stat summary
Mitch McLain – 1G
Cole Schwindt – 1G, 1A
Dryden Hunt – 1A
Rory Kerins – 2G, 1A
Nick DeSimone – 3A
Brady Lyle – 1A
Adam Klapka – 1G, 1A
Emilio Pettersen – 1G
Jonathan Aspirot – 2A
Highlights
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Next up
Calgary gets to build off this win and play the second half of this series on Sunday afternoon. They’ll face the Moose once again at the Scotiabank Saddledome with a start time of 1:00 p.m.
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