The Calgary Wranglers and Abbotsford Canucks wrapped up their weekend series on Sunday with another close match-up. Calgary had successfully protected their spot in the standings with their shootout loss on Saturday but in a tight 1-0 regulation loss on Sunday, they’ve fallen a spot in the Pacific Division standings that has been replaced by Abbotford. This important series leaves Calgary in the fifth spot in the Pacific.
Lineup notes
In Saturday’s game, David Silye left with a lower body injury when his leg got tangled up with an opposing player off a face-off. He didn’t put any weight on his leg on the way off the ice and didn’t return. For Sunday’s game, he was listed on the injury report as week-to-week.
The following Wranglers players will not play today due to injury:
David Silye: week-to-week (lower body)
Sam Honzek: day-to-day (lower body)
Injury Update presented by @MFradiology pic.twitter.com/R6G5bHS3Wj
— Calgary Wranglers (@AHLWranglers) March 16, 2025
While that update brought negative news, the positive part of it is that Sam Honzek is getting closer to returning to the lineup and has gone to a day-to-day status.
Wranglers lines
William Stromgren – Rory Kerins – Ty Tullio
Martin Frk – Sam Morton – Kyler Kupka
Parker Bell – Clark Bishop – Jonathan Aspirot
Lucas Ciona – Brett Davis – Alex Gallant
Tyson Barrie – Ilya Solovyov
Yan Kuznetsov – Hunter Brzustewicz
Artem Grushnikov – Jeremie Poirier
Waltteri Ignatjew
Game at a glance
In the back half of this back-to-back series, both teams switched up the goalies for this game. Calgary went with Waltteri Ignatjew in net and Nikita Tolopilo started for Abbotsford. The Wranglers came out with a lot of jump in this game and once the momentum started tilting towards the home team, Calgary got an opportunity on the power play just 7:22 into the first period.
They weren’t able to register a shot on this man advantage but did have another chance on the power play about five minutes later. Sam Morton had the only registered shot on goal on this chance. Morton continued to stand out in this opening frame but despite some solid individual chances for Calgary, nothing lit the lamp in this opening frame. At the end of the first period, the Wranglers and Canucks were scoreless and Calgary had a 13-6 edge in shots.
In the second period, the scoreless streak continued for about seven more minutes of play. At 7:31, Jeremie Poirier was called for a high sticking penalty and just six seconds into this Wranglers’ penalty kill, the Canucks scored off a goal from Linus Karlsson. Sammy Blais took a shot off the faceoff draw then Karlsson went in for the rebound and poked at it a few times to beat Ignatjew five hole.
The Wranglers had a couple of opportunities to tie this game up with a power play of their own in the minutes following but these power plays went without a change in scoring. Emotions started to rise and Calgary started getting called for it. First, Martin Frk was called for roughing at 13:38 then Sammy Blais and Clark Bishop were called for offsetting roughing calls at 15:06. Blais’ roughing call ended up being a double minor that Nate Smith had to serve. Calgary got a couple more looks before the end of the period but ended up finishing the middle frame down 1-0. Shots were 11-9 for Abbotsford in the second.
The third was pretty back and forth as the Canucks searched for an insurance goal and the Wranglers looked for a goal to even the score. Only one penalty call came this period when Jujhar Khaira was called for high sticking at 14:33. From this power play on, it was a tough push from Calgary to get on the board. Ignatjew went on and off several times in the last two and a half minutes of the game to get the extra attacker for the visitors.
Sam Morton and Rory Kerins both had chances to be the hero of this game similarly to Tyson Barrie’s last minute equalizing goal on Saturday, but unfortunately, their shots were turned away. The game came to a close and the Wranglers were shutout 1-0.
Calgary did finish ahead 30-21 in shots and for this goaltending battle, both netminders made the three stars. Understandably, Nikita Tolopilo was named the first star and Waltteri Ignatjew ended up being named the second star for stopping 20 out of 21 shots.
Next up
The Wranglers have completed this four game road series and return home next weekend to host the Coachella Valley Firebirds. Their next games will be on Fri., Mar. 21 at 7:00 p.m. MT and Sun., Mar. 23 at 12:00 p.m. MT.
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