Calgary Wranglers Series Preview: Two games to go against the Gulls
1 year ago
The Calgary Wranglers and San Diego Gulls face off for an Easter weekend series on Friday and Saturday night. It hasn’t been long since they saw each other last as they just played a couple of weeks ago on Mar. 24 and 26 at the Scotiabank Saddledome. The Wranglers won both of those games and have actually won all six of their match-ups this season. We will see if they can make it a perfect eight to close out their season series.
Projected Lineups
Calgary
Dryden Hunt – Ben Jones – Matthew Phillips
Emilio Pettersen – Cole Schwindt – Connor Zary
Brett Sutter – Clark Bishop – Kevin Rooney
Adam Klapka – Mitch McLain – Alex Gallant
Emilio Pettersen – Cole Schwindt – Connor Zary
Brett Sutter – Clark Bishop – Kevin Rooney
Adam Klapka – Mitch McLain – Alex Gallant
Ilya Solovyov – Nick DeSimone
Jeremie Poirier – Colton Poolman
Yan Kuznetsov – Nicolas Meloche
Jeremie Poirier – Colton Poolman
Yan Kuznetsov – Nicolas Meloche
Dustin Wolf
Oscar Dansk
Oscar Dansk
San Diego
Chase De Leo – Benoit-Olivier Groulx – Dylan Sikura
Justin Kirkland – Glenn Gawdin – Pavol Regenda
Brent Gates Jr. – Josiah Slavin – Jacob Perreault
Dmitry Osipov – Connor Hvidston – Judd Caulfield
Justin Kirkland – Glenn Gawdin – Pavol Regenda
Brent Gates Jr. – Josiah Slavin – Jacob Perreault
Dmitry Osipov – Connor Hvidston – Judd Caulfield
Michael Del Zotto – Drew Helleson
Olli Joulevi – Chase Priskie
Nikolas Brouillard – Andrej Sustr
Olli Joulevi – Chase Priskie
Nikolas Brouillard – Andrej Sustr
Gage Alexander
Calle Clang
Calle Clang
Leaders
Calgary
Matthew Phillips – 61GP, 34G, 39A
Connor Zary – 67GP, 20G, 37A
Ben Jones – 66GP, 16G, 36A
San Diego
Dylan Sikura – 65GP, 17G, 26A
Michael Del Zotto – 61GP, 8G, 31A
Nikolas Brouillard – 68GP, 6G, 33A
Notes and expectations
The Wranglers faced a huge test this week with a late season match-up against the Coachella Valley Firebirds. A team that is their biggest competition for the best in the Pacific and the best in the league. The Wranglers won this competition 3-1 on Wednesday night and pulled ahead in the standings.
As of Apr. 6, the Wranglers are the closest team to clinching the league with a magic number of nine. They are only competing with the Firebirds to clinch the Pacific Division and they are competing with the Firebirds, the Providence Bruins and the Hershey Bears for the league title. They have five games to go and this weekend could and should help them move this forward even further.
No game is really an easy win and even with the confidence of a six game winning streak against this weekend’s opponents does not guarantee they are going to walk away with their four points. I would expect Oscar Dansk to play in one of these games as Wolf started on Wednesday and they go on back to back nights.
If the cards fall in a way that benefits the Wranglers in this match-up and in others around the league, they could really make things easy for themselves in the remaining games following this weekend without any pressure of losing their division and league titles. It’s a busy weekend for hockey in the AHL with 30 games on the schedule in the next three days.
This series between the Gulls and Wranglers kicks off on Friday night at 8:00 p.m. (MT) in San Diego. It will continue into Saturday, same time, same place. You can stream these games on AHL.tv and FlamesNation contributors Mike Gould and myself will have updates on Twitter.
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