Calgary Wranglers Series Preview: A chance to overthrow the Silver Knights
1 year ago
The Calgary Wranglers will play three games against the Henderson Silver Knights this week. They’ll start the series with two midweek games on home ice then finish up the trio of games on Sunday on the road. The Silver Knights are the only team the Wranglers have faced this year to hold a winning record against them this year. They’ve played three games against each other, all in January and the Silver Knights hold a 2-1 record over the Wranglers. Calgary can even things up if they win the majority of the games this week and take a series lead if they are victorious in all three.
Projected lineups
Calgary
Matthew Phillips – Ben Jones – Emilio Pettersen
Connor Zary – Radim Zohorna – Cole Schwindt
Brett Sutter – Kevin Rooney – Adam Klapka
Mitch McLain – Clark Bishop – Alex Gallant
Connor Zary – Radim Zohorna – Cole Schwindt
Brett Sutter – Kevin Rooney – Adam Klapka
Mitch McLain – Clark Bishop – Alex Gallant
Ilya Solovyov – Nick DeSimone
Jeremie Poirier – Nicolas Meloche
Yan Kuznetsov – Colton Poolman
Jeremie Poirier – Nicolas Meloche
Yan Kuznetsov – Colton Poolman
Dustin Wolf
Daniil Chechelev
Daniil Chechelev
Henderson
Pavel Dorofeyev – Sakari Manninen – Sheldon Rempal
Gage Quinney – Ivan Morozov – Jonas Rondbjerg
Gemel Smith – Byron Froese – Maxim Marushev
Spencer Foo – Connor Ford – Kyle Marino
Gage Quinney – Ivan Morozov – Jonas Rondbjerg
Gemel Smith – Byron Froese – Maxim Marushev
Spencer Foo – Connor Ford – Kyle Marino
Daniil Chayka – Brayden Pachal
Jake Bischoff – Kaedan Korczak
Peter DiLiberatore – Lukas Cormier
Jake Bischoff – Kaedan Korczak
Peter DiLiberatore – Lukas Cormier
Michael Hutchinson
Jiri Patera
Jiri Patera
Leaders
Calgary
Matthew Phillips – 44GP, 26G, 28A
Connor Zary – 50GP, 15G, 31A
Ben Jones – 49GP, 11G, 29A
Henderson
Gemel Smith – 37GP, 13G, 25A
Gage Quinney – 44GP, 20G, 16A
Sheldon Rempal – 48GP, 13G, 21A
Notes and expectations
These three games are something for the Wranglers to get fired up over. They are the best team in the league and they want to continue to present themselves in that way. Their last three matchups against the Silver Knights resulted in a two-game sweep against Calgary then a one-off game that the Wranglers pulled through and won.
Their first game against each other was on Jan. 13, when the Henderson Silver Knights won 3-1. The second game was the following night and the Silver Knights won once again. This time by a score of 4-2. The Wranglers had a couple of weeks to adjust their approach to these guys and ended up beating the Silver Knights on Jan. 28 by a score of 6-2. Since their last match-up, the Wranglers’ record has been 7-2-0-0.
The Wranglers will be without another player for at least the first game of this series at the hands of the Calgary Flames. However, that’s the nature of the league. Walker Duehr was called up on Tuesday and will remain with the club for the time being with Michael Stone placed on injured reserve. Duehr had four points in his last five games and an assist in their last game against the Eagles. He was up with the Flames prior to the NHL All-Star break.
There are still quite a few players to watch still with the Wranglers including Dustin Wolf, who is on a bit of a marathon stretch of games with an ECHL goaltender, Daniil Chechelev, backing him up in Oscar Dansk’s week-to-week injury absence. Wolf just hit 30 wins last weekend and is currently on a four-game stretch of consecutive starts that could very well be up to seven by the end of the week if these games are close.
Another player on a hot streak is Jeremie Poirier. He has four points in his last two games with three assists in his last game. Poirier is sixth in team scoring as a rookie defenceman and holds a five point lead in scoring for rookie defencemen across the league. So far this season, he has five goals and 27 assists for a total of 32 points. He’ll be an interesting player to watch out for when he matures in the league a bit and a potential spot opens up for him with the Flames.
Their series kicks off on Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m. MT. They will then play the following night at the same time in Calgary. They’ll finish the series on Sunday in Henderson for a 3:00 p.m. MT game and the beginning of the Wranglers’ four game road trip. You can catch the midweek games at home at the Scotiabank Saddledome or stream all three games on AHL.TV. FlamesNation contributors Mike Gould and myself will have updates on Twitter.
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