Recap: Four Wranglers have multi-point nights in comeback overtime win over the Roadrunners
1 month ago
The Calgary Wranglers travelled to Tucson to play the Roadrunners for their first series against each other since Nov. 22. Calgary chased their opponents for most of the game but made a valiant comeback in the third period. They forced overtime and scored a game-winner on the power play. The Wranglers beat the Roadrunners 5-4 in another solid team effort.
Game at a glance
The Wranglers opted to start Oscar Dansk again for this game after he helped lead the team to a 3-1 win in their last game against the Colorado Eagles on Sunday. On the other end, Matthew Villalta got the nod between the pipes for the Roadrunners.
The Roadrunners had a good start to this game and were rewarded for it early in the first. At 5:48, Cameron Hebig scored off a backhander and put the home team up 1-0. The Wranglers answered back a few minutes later with a goal from Adam Klapka. Ben Jones picked up the lone assist on this equalizer.
This score didn’t stay even for long when Milos Kelemen scored for Tucson at 9:44. He faked like he was going glove side and got the puck around Dansk to put the Roadrunners up 2-1. The tensions of this close game boiled over a bit later in the period when Lucas Ciona and Steven Kampfer dropped the gloves after a hit in the corner.
The Wranglers ended up in a penalty kill after this fight when Emilio Pettersen was called for slashing but Calgary held it together to prevent further goals. At the end of the first period, Tucson had a 2-1 lead over the Wranglers and the lead in shots 12-6.
In the second, former Stockton Heat standout, Justin Kirkland scored for the home team once again just 34 seconds into the frame. About a minute later, the Wranglers were on a power play and William Stromgren got a goal back for Calgary at 3:06. Emilio Pettersen and Adam Klapka assisted on this marker. AHL.tv had streaming issues during the second period so there was no video replay of this goal.
Matthew Wedman was called for holding the stick after this goal and the Roadrunners scored a power play of their own at 5:26 from Austin Poganski. There were a few more penalty calls in this middle frame but the score didn’t change after this power play marker from Tucson. At the end of 40 minutes, the Roadrunners held a 4-2 lead and out-shot Calgary 10-8 in the second.
In the third, the Wranglers had a pair of power plays in the first half of the third and on the second one, Ben Jones put the Wranglers within one goal at 10:28 off a backhander. Cole Schwindt and Jonathan Aspirot assisted.
The Wranglers were continuing to try for one more to even things up. With two and a half minutes to go in the regulation, Oscar Dansk went off for the extra attacker to give the Wranglers a final push for a goal. They held zone pressure and Mitch McLain scored the tying goal at 19:01 off a tip-in. William Stromgren and Adam Klapka assisted on this marker.
At the end of regulation, the Wranglers and Roadrunners were tied 5-5 and needed an additional frame to try and decide the winner of this competition. In overtime, the Roadrunners took an early holding penalty at 1:31 and at 2:40, Cole Schwindt scored the game-winner with a patient shot that Adam Klapka and Ben Jones assisted on. This was the only shot on goal of the brief overtime.
The score finished up 5-4 in this Wranglers overtime win. The shots finished up 31-29 for Calgary and Dansk picked up his second straight win for the squad. Two Wranglers made the three stars with Cole Schwindt earning the first star and Ben Jones earning the third.
Scoring stat summary
Mitch McLain – 1G
Cole Schwindt – 1G, 1A
Ben Jones – 1G, 2A
Adam Klapka – 1G, 2A
William Stromgren – 1G, 1A
Emilio Pettersen – 1A
Jonathan Aspirot – 1A
Next up
These two are right back at it 24 hours later. The Wranglers and Roadrunners play a rematch to wrap up this series on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. MT.
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