Calgary Wranglers recap: Scoring explodes in 8-3 win over the Gulls
8 months ago
The Calgary Wranglers started a brief road trip on Friday evening for a one-off match-up against the San Diego Gulls. They are scheduled to play on back-to-back nights and will face the Coachella Valley Firebirds on Saturday. Calgary got this first game going very quickly and got up to a 4-0 lead after just the opening period. The scoring continued with this game ending in an 8-3 victory for the Wranglers.
Wranglers lines
Dryden Hunt – Cole Schwindt – Matt Coronato
Rory Kerins – Ben Jones – Adam Klapka
Emilio Pettersen – Clark Bishop – William Stromgren
Alex Gallant – Brett Sutter – Mitch McLain
Jordan Oesterle – Jonathan Aspirot
Ilya Solovyov – Brady Lyle
Yan Kuznetsov – Colton Poolman
Oscar Dansk
Game at a glance
The Wranglers wasted no time getting right into the action in this game. Just 1:11 into the game, Colton Poolman struck first for Calgary off a shot from the blue line. It didn’t come off very hard but was enough to get past his opposing netminder. Ben Jones and Yan Kuznetsov assisted on this opening tally.
Not even a minute later, Alex Gallant did Alex Gallant things and picked a fighting partner from the other bench. He and Travis Howe took a bit to get the fight going but once they did, it was quite the tilt.
Just over a minute after this, Brady Lyle was called for tripping and the Wranglers were on the penalty kill. They didn’t make it seem like they were shorthanded as Cole Schwindt forced a turnover and came up into the Gulls’ zone on a shorthanded breakaway. His initial shot is denied, and then Ben Jones buried the rebound.
The quick burst of action slowed down a little bit for a couple of minutes but just past the midway mark, Ben Jones kept the rebound trend going and scored again off his own rebound. Rory Kerins and Ilya Solovyov assisted on the Wranglers’ third goal and Jones’ second of the night.
And it still did not end there… 15:03 into the period, Dryden Hunt and Matt Coronato skated the puck into the San Diego zone and Hunt picked up his first AHL point of the season and Coronato scored his second goal for the Wranglers.
The Wranglers held the momentum most of the period and went into the second with even more juice as the Gulls took a double minor penalty with 11 seconds to go in the period that carried over into the second. After 20 minutes, the Wranglers led 4-0 and had a 12-10 edge in shots.
The Gulls continued to shoot themselves in the foot and took another penalty while they were still trying to kill off the double minor. The Wranglers didn’t let that pass by without another marker and Brady Lyle was the next scorer for Calgary. Matt Coronato and Dryden Hunt assisted on this fifth goal of the evening.
While they were still on the power play, the Wranglers kept their offensive zone pressure and as a result, Emilio Pettersen netted his first goal of the season. William Stromgren and Jordan Oesterle assisted on goal number six of the night.
The Gulls were visibly getting frustrated (and rightfully so) and as a result, Trevor Carrick initiated a fight with Adam Klapka. Both took a seat in the box and 37 seconds later, San Diego jammed the puck past Oscar Dansk to make it a 6-1 game. Nathan Gaucher was credited for the goal that would be his first in the league.
San Diego gripped onto that momentum and carried it for a few minutes until Jacob Perreault took a shot through traffic that beat Oscar Dansk 10:41 into the second period. The Wranglers wouldn’t let that one go unanswered.
15:43 into the period, Brett Sutter had just come out of the box and broke out with Cole Schwindt into the Gulls’ zone. Sutter finished the play and added a seventh goal to the Wranglers’ score.
The second period finished without any further scoring and the Gulls out-shot the Wranglers 12-8 in the middle frame. The home team had a lot of work left to do in the third but it was not enough. The Gulls had a string of penalties to start the third and Matt Coronato capitalized on one of them just six seconds into the power play putting the Wranglers up 8-2. Dryden Hunt and Cole Schwindt assisted on this marker.
The Gulls still had some spirit left to play out the game and got one more goal on the board before the end of the period. They scored on the power play 18:24 into the third with a goal by Pavol Regenda. That was the last goal of the night and the Wranglers won 8-3.
San Diego out-shot Calgary 33-31 and all three stars were awarded to Wranglers players. Oscar Dansk picked up the third star for the win between the pipes, Matt Coronato picked up the second star for his three-point night and Ben Jones picked up the first star for his three-point night and game-winning goal.
Next up
The Wranglers are back in action Saturday night but will switch up their opponents. They face the Coachella Valley Firebirds for the first time since being eliminated from playoffs last year. The puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m. MT.
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