Recap: Wranglers special teams explode in 5-1 win over the Condors
1 year ago
It’s a rival weekend for the Calgary Wranglers as they continue their road trip in Bakersfield, California against the Oilers affiliate, the Condors. Based on how this game went, it appeared the Wranglers were better prepared for this Friday night match-up. The Wranglers scored five unanswered goals through two periods and were four and a half minutes away from a shutout for Dustin Wolf before the Condors snapped that on a late power play goal. The Wranglers take the win on game one and turn around and play again on Saturday night for game two.
Lineup notes
Nick DeSimone made his return to the lineup after playing in four games for the Flames for injury coverage. While he didn’t register any points with the Flames, the points returned for him as early as the first period of this game with the Wranglers. He was also recognized as the first star of the night netting two out of the five Wranglers goals on Friday.
If you liked the play of Rory Kerins, unfortunately, you won’t be seeing him for a little while for the Wranglers. He had a goal in three games with the Wranglers but has since returned to the Rapid City Rush of the ECHL as of Wednesday. Simon Lavigne joined him on that trip back down, but he did not end up getting any ice time with Calgary.
Game at a glance
The Wranglers got absorbed in the game action almost immediately. They were the first to get whistled for a penalty just a mere 16 seconds into the game but they recovered from that without causing any damage. The first period was Wranglers, Wranglers and more Wranglers while the Condors were not capitalizing on their opportunities. Opportunities that included a four-minute double minor they were unable to score on.
The first goal was off the stick of Jeremie Poirier, who scored his second of the season 4:50 into the game. Ben Jones made a string of solid plays to cough up the puck and give Poirier a perfect line to the back of the net.
Just past the midway mark, Nick DeSimone scored a power play goal in his first game back and extended the Wranglers lead to 2-0. Jakob Pelletier and Ben Jones picked up the helpers.
That did not end the power play success either. Their second power play of the evening also resulted in another goal for the Wranglers. This one was credited to Jakob Pelletier after the Wranglers’ power play movement resulted in a buried rebound.
Ben Jones assisted on this third consecutive goal that came late in the period 18:16 in.
That concluded the activities of the first period with the Wranglers in a comfortable 3-0 lead after 20 minutes and ahead 11-8 in shots.
The second period slowed down the scoring a little bit, but not by much. 8:36 into the second period, Connor Zary scored the fourth goal for the Wranglers on you guessed it, the power play once again. This extended Zary’s point streak to five straight. Matthew Phillips and Nick DeSimone picked up assists as they both reached two points on the night as a result of this goal.
It looked like that might have been the last goal of the period, but the Wranglers snuck another in. They had a late opportunity on the power play when Nick DeSimone scored his second goal of the night with 11 seconds to go in the period. Pelletier and Zary picked up assists.
That ended another productive period for the Wranglers with five unanswered goals. Their shots after this period climbed up to 31 with Dustin Wolf only facing 15 on the other end.
The Condors made a goaltending change going into the third replacing Olivier Rodrigue with Ryan Fanti. He was able to control the bleeding in the third and kept the Wranglers score to five through the last 20 minutes.
The bad news for the Wranglers was with 4:30 to go in the third period, Dustin Wolf was robbed of his shutout with the Condors scoring on the power play. It took them 23 shots to make it to the scoreboard and with a huge scoring night, you got to feel for Wolf on that one.
The game finished up at 5-1 for the Wranglers with them registering 46 shots to the Condors’ 23. The Wranglers’ power play went 4/8 and they have extended their team point streak up to six games now. Another milestone to note is Matthew Phillips reached the 100 career assist mark after his performance in this game.
Next up
It’s a back-to-back rematch as these teams will face off again Saturday night same time, same place. Puck drop is at 8:00 p.m. MT. You can stream this game on AHL.tv or follow along with FlamesNation contributors Mike Gould and myself, as we provide Wranglers game and news updates on Twitter.
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