Recap: Pelletier returns to the AHL with two points in Wranglers’ 4-1 win over the Reign
1 year ago
The Calgary Wranglers had a busy week of hockey playing two midweek games at home and two weekend games on the road. Three out of four of these games were against the Ontario Reign. They finished the week against the same team they started it with and beat the Reign 4-1 on Sunday night. The game was not as spread as the score shows as two empty-net goals secured the win for the Wranglers late in the third.
Game at a glance
All the Calgary call-ups were back in the lineup for this game. Only Walker Duehr was back for Saturday’s game but Jakob Pelletier, Dennis Gilbert and Walker Duehr were all back for Sunday’s game. Dustin Wolf also got the start after Oscar Dansk played in Saturday’s game.
These teams are quite familiar with each other so this game was a hard-fought battle that really could’ve gone either way. The scoring started with the Ontario Reign. 4:06 into the first, they scored on the second shot of the game and got an early 1-0 lead.
The Wranglers were itching for a goal back and put up quite a few shots in the first. They did manage to score before the end of the period with Jakob Pelletier netting a power play goal 18:15 into the period. Connor Zary and Jeremie Poirier assisted.
That finished up the scoring action in the first and the score sat at 1-1 going into the first intermission. The Wranglers outshot the Reign 11-5.
In the second period, the Reign looked as if they were going to take the lead once again. With 5:56 to go in the second frame, a shot got behind Wolf, the refs waved it off and the lights in the rink flashed to celebrate an apparent goal.
The teams were going to continue to play but the lights being darkened stopped play. The officials reviewed the goal and it didn’t end up crossing the goal line. Nicolas Meloche chipped the puck out of the crease and saved a Reign goal.
Playing off the good luck for the Wranglers, they managed to score another goal in the last minute of the second. Matthew Phillips scored for the first time in five games. Having Jakob Pelletier back in the lineup must have been a bit of a push for Phillips. Jakob Pelletier and Ilya Solovyov assisted on the go-ahead goal.
The second ended with the Wranglers ahead 2-1 and outshooting the Reign 24-12. The third brought a little bit more of effort by Ontario but it wasn’t quite enough to get any goals back. They outshot Calgary 10-8 in the third but Dustin Wolf held it down between the pipes.
Ontario pulled their goalie with 1:47 to go in regulation and with 1:03 to go, Walker Duehr scored in the empty night for the second night in a row. Ontario pulled their goalie once again with 45 seconds to go an Calgary scored on the empty net once again to bring their lead up to 4-1. Ben Jones was the goal scorer for the second empty-netter.
That finished up the game for the night and Jakob Pelletier took the first star on the night and his linemate, Matthew Phillips was awarded the third star. The Wranglers ended with a 32-22 edge in shots.
Next up
The Wranglers’ road trip has already come to a close and they will be back home later this week to host the Bakersfield Condors for the AHL Battle of Alberta. The first game will be on Thursday and they will finish up their pair of games against the Oilers affiliate on Friday night. Both games are set to start at 7:00 p.m. MT.
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