Recap: Wranglers complete weekend sweep over Eagles just in time for Christmas
7 months ago
The Calgary Wranglers played their last pre-Christmas game on Saturday afternoon against the Colorado Eagles. They had a high-scoring game with quite a few standout performances that lead Calgary to a 5-1 win and a sweep on the weekend series. Cole Schwindt scored a season-high two goals, Dryden Hunt earned three points and William Stromgren scored his first goal in the league to name a few highlights.
Lineup notes
Calgary made another injury update before this game to inform the public that Brett Sutter is out with an injury once again. His status is week-to-week with a lower-body injury. All the other updates mirrored the information from their pre-game update on Friday.
The Wranglers also announced earlier in the day that Mark Duarte was sent back down to the Rapid City Rush.
Game at a glance
The Eagles opted to start Justus Annunen in net and Dustin Wolf started for the Wranglers once again. This game had a good pace to start not showing any signs of wear on the back-to-back. Dryden Hunt drew first blood with a goal 7:25 into the first period. He cut off a clearing attempt and skated the puck all the way into the zone and put it past Annunen.
The Eagles wouldn’t let this lead stay long when Ben Meyers got a marker at 11:52 to tie up this game. He was set up perfectly by his teammate and made a quick move in front to beat Wolf. The back-and-forth energy continued in the opening frame but the score remained 1-1 at the end of 20 minutes. Calgary had the edge in shots 16-11 by the first intermission.
Dryden Hunt drew a penalty just nine seconds into the second period and this opportunity allowed Cole Schwindt to score his first goal of the night near the end of the power play. He was in the right place at the right time to jam a misplayed puck in. Rory Kerins and Jonathan Aspirot assisted.
Calgary further extended their lead just over a minute later with Ben Jones’ 10th goal of the season. Matt Coronato took a shot that deflected perfectly off the end boards and landed on the stick of Jones, who scored on a wrist shot. Dryden Hunt got the other assist on this third Wranglers goal of the evening.
Scoring took a break for a few minutes but the penalties started rolling in. Jason Polin of the Eagles checked Colton Poolman in the head, which got him ejected from the game with a match penalty and a five-minute major his teammate served.
From the angle of the replay, the crowd and the announcers felt the hit was exaggerated, but the officials did not agree. This extended opportunity didn’t result in any further scoring for Calgary. A couple more minor offsetting roughing penalties came up minutes later as well but also didn’t result in any further special team scoring.
At 12:18, the Wranglers scored their third goal of the period and the fourth goal of the night with William Strömgren’s first goal in the AHL. He chipped in a rebound right in front of the crease and this will be a one for him to remember. Yan Kuznetsov and Emilio Pettersen earned the helpers.
This goal ended Justus Annunen’s night and Trent Miner came in relief in net for the Eagles. Colorado had a good push in the second half of the middle frame but Wolf kept things tight in net and didn’t let anything past him. After 40 complete minutes of play, the Wranglers were up 4-1 and were out-shot 15-8 in the second period.
The third period was not as eventful as the second but the Eagles still didn’t back down. They always have energetic crowds that help keep them in games but even so, the Wranglers would score on more time before the end of regulation.
Cole Schwindt scored his second goal of the game at 13:40. Dryden Hunt assisted for his third point of the night and Clark Bishop picked up the secondary assist. Hunt had the puck behind Miner and set up Schwindt perfectly for the tip-in.
The Wranglers’ zone efforts slowed after this goal and they were playing in a way to protect their lead. The Eagles would put up five more shots on Wolf in the third but didn’t bother pulling their goalie for the extra attacker late in the game.
Shots finished up 37-31 for the Eagles and the final score was 5-1 for the Wranglers. Dustin Wolf cracked the three stars for the second night in a row earning the third star. Dryden Hunt earned the second star and Cole Schwindt was awarded the first star.
Scoring stat summary
Cole Schwindt – 2G
Ben Jones – 1G
Clark Bishop – 1A
Dryden Hunt – 1G, 2A
Rory Kerins – 1A
Yan Kuznetsov – 1A
Matt Coronato – 1A
William Stromgren – 1G
Emilio Pettersen – 1A
Jonathan Aspirot – 1A
Next up
This game wrapped up the Wranglers’ five-game stretch on the road. They’ll take a few days off for Christmas then will be back in action on Thur., Dec. 28 against the Abbotsford Canucks. This will kick off an eight-game homestand that will continue into mid-January. Thursday’s game is set to start at 7:00 p.m. MT.
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