Calgary Wranglers recap: Scoring reignited in 5-1 win over the Silver Knights
6 months ago
It’s been a very busy week of hockey for the Calgary Wranglers. They played back-to-back on Monday and Tuesday against the Coachella Valley Firebirds and started another series on Friday night against the Henderson Silver Knights. Thankfully, they were all at home so the travel aspect of it was taken away and the Wranglers had a much better showing for themselves on Friday night. After dropping two earlier in the week, the Wranglers are back in the win column with a 5-1 victory in game one against the Silver Knights.
Lineup notes
The team announced Connor Murphy was called up from Rapid City before this game. While at first glance, this brought on rumours of a Dustin Wolf call-up, it was actually to cover Oscar Dansk. Dansk got into a collision with a Coachella Valley player late in their last game on Tuesday and appeared to need a maintenance day for this game. Murphy backed up Wolf instead.
The Wranglers also announced on Jan. 4 that they added Mark Rassell on a PTO. Rassell made his AHL debut in this game, wore number 25 and skated on a line with Ben Jones and Adam Klapka. Rassell slotted in well for Rory Kerins, who did not play due to an awkward hit along the boards he took last game that may have tweaked his knee enough to need a maintenance day as well.
Another moving part that hit the Wranglers on Friday was the call-up of Yan Kuznetsov. Dennis Gilbert fell to the ice and hit his head in a dangerous play on Thursday night with the Flames. This will likely take Gilbert out of the lineup for a few games. Kuznetsov was called up for the first time in his career to have a cushion up with the big club on the blue line.
Game at a glance
The Wranglers got off to a great start in this game with their opening goal taking place at 4:07. Emilio Pettersen broke up a play in the Wranglers zone and made a perfect pass up to Matt Coronato, who sprung on a breakaway. Coronato finished the play with a wrist shot past the Silver Knights netminder.
Mere seconds after this goal, the Silver Knights were called for interference and at 5:13 Emilio Pettersen was awarded for his efforts with a power play goal. Brady Lyle picked up the lone assist.
This line continued to stay hot through the opening half of the period with another goal at 7:10. Emilio Pettersen found Matt Coronato once again and Coronato connected on the one-timer. Clark Bishop got the secondary assist on the third marker of the night for Calgary.
Later in the period, Clark Bishop took a shot and got bumped at the end of it causing him to slide head-first into the boards. He was attended to briefly then skated off on his own for further evaluation. With just 24 seconds to go in the period, this didn’t jumble lines up too much but if he were to miss more time, some adjustments would need to be made.
At the end of the first period, the Wranglers had a 3-0 lead and doubled up the Silver Knights 19-8 in shots. Thankfully in the second, Bishop was back on the bench appearing unscathed. The Wranglers continued to dominate in offensive opportunities and registered the only shots on net in the first half of the second period. It wasn’t until 10:34 that Wolf would face his first opposing shot of the period.
The Wranglers were the next to find the back of the net with a goal from Cole Schwindt. He skated into the zone and scored on a forward backhand move to make it a 4-0 game. William Stromgren and Mark Pysyk assisted on this marker that came at 13:11.
Just a couple of minutes later, Mark Rassell scored his first goal in his first game in this league. The local product couldn’t have had a more picture-perfect way to commemorate his first game with Calgary. He cut into the zone and flipped a backhand shot past Isaiah Saville at 15:27.
After this goal, the Wranglers were on the power play then had a six-second overlap of a 5-on-3 late in the period. There was no further scoring in the third and the score finished up at 5-0 after 40 minutes. The Wranglers continued to dominate in the shot category with 15 to the Silver Knights’ six in the middle frame.
In the third, the first few minutes played out without a hitch. At 8:17, Jarrod Gourley was called for holding. Towards the end of the penalty kill, Sheldon Rempal scored for the Silver Knights and broke up Wolf’s shutout. Rempal beat Wolf top corner and made it a 5-1 game.
As the game drew closer to its close, there was a bit of pushing and shoving behind the Henderson net that resulted in offsetting roughing calls for Clark Bishop and Dysin Mayo, but that ended there. The game finished up with a 5-1 final score and the Wranglers outshot the Silver Knights 41-33. The three stars of the night went to Mark Rassell for the third star, Matt Coronato for the second star and Emilio Pettersen for the first star.
Trent Cull and Emilio Pettersen spoke to the media after the game and both credited their good start as part of the recipe for their success in this game.
Scoring stat summary
Cole Schwindt – 1G
Mark Pysyk – 1A
Clark Bishop – 1A
Mark Rassell – 1G
Brady Lyle – 1A
Matt Coronato – 2G
William Stromgren – 1A
Emilio Pettersen – 1G, 2A
Highlights
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Next up
This series continues the Wranglers’ game homestand with all four series taking place on a back-to-back. They’ll face the Silver Knights again on Saturday night to wrap up their four-game week of hockey. The puck drop will be at 7:00 p.m. MT at the Scotiabank Saddeldeome.
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