Recap: Calgary Wranglers drop fourth straight in San Jose weekend opener
5 months ago
The Calgary Wranglers entered this game on a three-game losing streak. The once-top Pacific Division leader has since fallen a few positions in the standings and call-ups have definitely factored into this. They opened their weekend series against San Jose on Friday and looked to snap their losing streak, but were unsuccessful. They were shutout on the road with a 3-0 final score.
Lineup notes
Two long-awaited returns took place in this game. Jakob Pelletier and Kevin Rooney were cleared to play and returned to the lineup after their lengthy injury recovery. They skated on a line together alongside Mark Duarte.
Also returning was Dustin Wolf, who got the start in this game. Even if the score was 1-0 instead of 3-0, there is not much your goaltender can do if you don’t score.
Game at a glance
Eetu Makiniemi got the nod on the other side of the ice and had one of the best performances on the night between the pipes. This game started with a pretty standard opening frame without any huge happenings to report. Ben Jones and Yan Kuznetsov had perhaps the best opportunities to open up the scoring but were turned away. The Wranglers held most of the zone time and earned the most shots with 15 to the Barracuda’s seven.
After a full 20 minutes, there was only one penalty called and no scoring for either side. The second period got right into the special teams with Jakob Pelletier picking up his first penalty of the season. He was called for tripping just 20 seconds into the middle frame and served his time in the box. This was the first of five Wranglers penalty kills this period and one of them burned them on the scoreboard.
The Barracuda opened up the scoring 13:54 into the second with Ethan Frisch gripped and ripped the puck for his first goal in the league. After this goal, the Wranglers were on a four-on-four that came and went then Yan Kuznetsov was called for tripping. This call was the one that hurt them with a power play goal from San Jose at 17:18.
Nathan Todd scored on the man advantage off a one-timer. This was the last goal of the period and the middle frame put San Jose up 2-0, despite an even 11-11 shot count. The Wranglers tried to get back in this game in the third but still couldn’t beat Makiniemi. Instead, the Barracuda scored their third unanswered goal at 5:07.
Jordy Bellerive was the San Jose scorer after he tapped in a rebound. The Wranglers shut the home team down after this goal as they only got one more shot on goal. Calgary wouldn’t put up any more shots until 15:02 and at that point, they were too far behind to make a full comeback. They went the whole night scoreless and finished with a 3-0 final score. Shots finished 37-21 for Calgary. Jakob Pelletier finished the night with one shot on goal and Kevin Rooney had three.
Next up
It’s probably in the Barracuda’s best interest to start their same netminder again, however, he has already started in two games this week. With this series being a back to back, if the Wranglers see him again on Saturday, they have to adjust. Their next game will be an hour earlier with a 7:00 p.m. MT start. This game will have a complimentary stream on AHL.tv for their free preview day.
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