Preview: Calgary Wranglers kick off homestand against Abbotsford Canucks in midweek series
1 year ago
The Calgary Wranglers return to the dome this week to kick off a back-to-back series on Valentine’s Day. They host the Abbotsford Canucks on Tuesday and Wednesday and look to defend their top spot in the league. Calgary leads the season series against Abbotsford with a 6-1-0-0 record. Their last series was three straight games back in January on the road and the Wranglers won all three of them. One in overtime, the next in a shootout and the last one in regulation. We will see if they have the same luck in this pair of games.
Projected lineups
Calgary
Radim Zohorna – Ben Jones – Matthew Phillips
Emilio Pettersen – Cole Schwindt – Connor Zary
Brett Sutter – Kevin Rooney – Walker Duehr
Alex Gallant – Clark Bishop – Adam Klapka
Emilio Pettersen – Cole Schwindt – Connor Zary
Brett Sutter – Kevin Rooney – Walker Duehr
Alex Gallant – Clark Bishop – Adam Klapka
Ilya Solovyov – Nick DeSimone
Yan Kuznetsov – Colton Poolman
Jeremie Poirier – Nicolas Meloche
Yan Kuznetsov – Colton Poolman
Jeremie Poirier – Nicolas Meloche
Dustin Wolf
Daniil Chechelev
Daniil Chechelev
Abbotsford
Nils Hoglander – Justin Dowling – Linus Karlsson
Kyle Rau – Aatu Raty – Tristen Nielsen
Arshdeep Bains – Chase Wouters – Danila Klimovich
Vincent Arseneau – Matt Alfaro
Kyle Rau – Aatu Raty – Tristen Nielsen
Arshdeep Bains – Chase Wouters – Danila Klimovich
Vincent Arseneau – Matt Alfaro
Wyatt Kalynuk – Noah Juulsen
Christian Wolanin – Jett Woo
Quinn Schmiemann – Alex Kannok Leipert
Jack Rathbone
Christian Wolanin – Jett Woo
Quinn Schmiemann – Alex Kannok Leipert
Jack Rathbone
Arturs Silovs
Rylan Parenteau
Rylan Parenteau
Leaders
Calgary
Matthew Phillips – 40GP, 25G, 25A
Connor Zary – 46GP, 14G, 28A
Ben Jones – 45GP, 11G, 28A
Abbotsford
Christian Wolanin – 47GP, 5G, 47A
Justin Dowling – 37GP, 11G, 25A
Linus Karlsson – 47GP, 15G, 19A
Notes and expectations
It’ll be a busy week for the Wranglers with four home games over six days. I’d expect to see Dustin Wolf between the pipes for the first half of this Canucks series and depending on the result, there may be some backup action going on for Wednesday’s game.
Oscar Dansk was reported as week-to-week for his lower-body injury so it’s likely Daniil Chechelev is here to stay for a little bit and should play in at least one of the four games this week. He picked up his first AHL win last week against the San Jose Barracuda last Saturday and is going to want to fully capitalize on any opportunity he gets at this level while he is with the team.
There aren’t any specific players to keep an eye on in this series per se as quite a few things are going right for this team right now and the individual performances have been contributing to that. Matthew Phillips has five points in his last five games and still leads the league in goals, Emilio Pettersen has five points in his last six games, Walker Duehr has five points in his last five games and Ben Jones has four points in his last three games and that just names a few.
You can catch these players and the rest of the Wranglers at home at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday and Wednesday nights or stream them on AHL.TV. Tuesday’s game is set to start at 7:00 p.m. MT and Wednesday’s game is set to start at 6:00 p.m. MT. FlamesNation contributors Mike Gould and myself will have coverage on Twitter.
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