Recap: Calgary Wranglers snap losing streak with 3-1 win over the Firebirds
1 year ago
The Calgary Wranglers had an outcome change for their game on Wednesday against the Coachella Valley Firebirds and successfully snapped their three game losing streak. The Wranglers scored three in their first match-up against Coachella Valley since November and a late goal by their opposition finished up the score at 3-1.
Game at a glance
A win is a win but this one didn’t have the prettiest start. The Wranglers were completely blown out in shots through the first period 11-1 and owed Dustin Wolf some stick taps for keeping things scoreless through 20 minutes. They have a couple of power plays to kill off in the first but not nearly enough to justify only getting one shot on goal.
The second period was a much better showing for them and none other than the captain, Brett Sutter, got things rolling for this team. Sutter scored 9:16 into the period when Radim Zohorna backhand passed the puck up to him and he chipped it in. Nick DeSimone also assisted on the opening goal of the game.
That was the extent of the scoring through the second period and the Wranglers had a much better frame all around out-shooting the Firebirds 14-7. In the third, they continued to chip away at their lead and build up some insurance to get them through the final 20 minutes.
Matthew Phillips scored the second goal for the Wranglers with a stunning pick off play when the Coachella Valley netminder, Chris Driedger tried to clear the puck, Phillips intercepted it and went for the speedy wrap-around and pulled Calgary ahead by two. This was an unassisted effort that came 7:42 into the third period.
The Wranglers were pretty comfortable through the third period and the Firebirds pulled Driedger with just over two and a half minutes to go in regulation. Ben Jones got an opportunity to take a shot at the empty net and scored 18:12 into the third to put the Wranglers up 3-0. Jones’ goal was also unassisted.
The Wranglers just had 1:48 to go in regulation and 1:48 to secure a shutout for Dustin Wolf. Unfortunately, the Firebirds snapped this before the end of the game with a goal 18:47 into the third. That wrapped up the scoring for the night and the Wranglers beat the Firebirds 3-1. Shots finished up 30-24 favouring Coachella Valley.
Next up
The Wranglers head into the weekend with a road win on the week and two more road games to go. They will play a four game series against the Colorado Eagles starting on Friday night. The first two games will be back to back in Loveland, CO then they will both come to Calgary next week to play the final two games of the series next Tuesday and Wednesday. The Wranglers currently lead the season series against them 3-1-0-0. This weekend’s games are set to start at 7:05 p.m. MT.
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