Recap: Calgary Wranglers fall to Silver Knights in first meeting of the season
1 year ago
The Calgary Wranglers kicked off their road trip on Friday night with their first game of the year against the Henderson Silver Knights. This was the first time Ben Jones faced his former team and the first time the Wranglers faced Spencer Foo and Byron Froese since they moved on from the Stockton Heat. The Wranglers did not have the easiest time against Henderson only scoring one goal and falling 3-1.
Game at a glance
This game got off to a slower start with the teams taking their time to adjust to each other’s game. Things stayed even until Alex Gallant was called for boarding 9:11 into the game and 24 seconds later, the Silver Knights opened up scoring with a power play goal.
That was the only goal through the first 20 minutes and shots were evened up at seven. In the second period, Henderson struck again 4:42 into the period with an even-strength goal. Both goals were not too deep in the zone and beat Dansk with a quick release wrist shot.
Calgary was able to answer back soon after the second Henderson goal. 33 seconds later to be exact. Cole Schwindt won the offensive zone face-off, the puck slid back to Nick DeSimone and Ilya Solovyov took the shot from the blue line. This coughed up a juicy rebound that Connor Zary buried in the back of the net for his 12th goal of the season.
That concluded scoring through the second period and it played on as a pretty quick frame with limited whistles and no penalties for either sides. Calgary put up a slight edge in shots in the second period 15-13.
The Wranglers were unable to capitalize on any of their scoring chances in the third despite their efforts. The put up 15 shots and had two power play opportunities that passed them by. They pulled Dansk for the extra attacker with 1:29 to go in regulation and none other than Spencer Foo took the puck down to the other end and shot it into the empty net about a minute later.
That pretty well closed things up for the game and the Silver Knights took the first game of the season series 3-1. The Wranglers finished with a 37-30 edge in shots.
With it being a back-to-back weekend, Oscar Dansk got the start in net in this game. He played a solid game stopping 27 of 29 SIlver Knights shots. With the last goal being an empty-netter, that didn’t go against Dansk.
I would expect to see Dustin Wolf back in net in Saturday’s game. Even if he started in this game, it would’ve been tough to win with the lack of production Calgary was able to put up. Hopefully, Saturday yields better scoring luck for them.
Next up
These teams are quickly getting acquainted with a back-to-back series. They will be back in action against each other less than 24 hours later in a Saturday afternoon match-up. This game is being offered for free in an AHL.TV free preview day and puck drop is set for 4:00 p.m. MT.
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