The Calgary Wranglers and Coachella Valley Firebirds wrapped up their weekend and season series on Sunday. Going into this game, Coachella Valley had the winning record on the season with a 5-2-0-0 record against Calgary. They were neck and neck in the standings with the same winning percentage but after the Firebirds won 4-2, they took the fourth spot in the standings and put the Wranglers in fifth.

Lineup notes

There weren’t many changes to the lineup for this game. Devin Cooley did not dress for Friday’s game but did start for this game. Waltteri Ignatjew dressed as back up. Connor Mylymok was out for this game and Trevor Janicke, who was called up from Rapid City on Saturday, slotted into the lineup. 
Tyson Barrie was out again but interim head coach Joe Cirella provided an update on him post-game saying he is currently recovering from whiplash. 

Wranglers lines

Rory Kerins – Sam Morton – Martin Frk 
Sam Honzek – Clark Bishop – William Stromgren
Lucas Ciona – Kyler Kupka – Ty Tullio
Parker Bell – Alex Gallant – Trevor Janicke
Ilya Solovyov – Jonathan Aspirot 
Yan Kuznetsov – Hunter Brzustewicz
Artem Grushikov – Jeremie Poirier
Devin Cooley

Game at a glance

Devin Cooley was back between the pipes after getting Friday night off. The Firebirds opted to keep their netminder the same for this game with Nikke Kokko starting for the second half of this series. Cooley was getting the majority of the work in the opening frame. The first penalty went to Alex Gallant for boarding.
The Firebirds got a couple of shots on this man advantage but didn’t open the scoring until a few minutes later. The visitors got on the board at 8:17 when Ben Meyers deflected a shot past Cooley off a shot from the point. 
A few minutes after this goal, Parker Bell got some energy going with a brief fight against Ville Ottavainen. Both took their respective fighting majors. 
Coachella Valley got the next few chances but Calgary bounced back in the dying seconds rattling off a couple of shots from Sam Morton and Martin Frk. It was a limited shot period for Calgary and that little 20 second boost improved them from three to five. The score after 20 minutes was 1-0 Coachella Valley and they had a 15-5 edge in shots. 
The Wranglers got their first chance on the power play just 2:18 into the second period but couldn’t generate an opportunity to even up the scoring. Shortly after their power play ended, they were on the penalty kill when Ilya Solovyov was called for cross checking. 
This penalty kill was successful but the Firebirds were the next to score at 9:28 with a goal from Max Lajoie. It was another shot from the point, but this one did go straight through without deflection. 
After this goal, these teams exchanged some chances and both goalies turned them away. At 17:18, the Wranglers were back on a power play but did not register a shot by the end of the period. After 40 minutes of play, the Wranglers trailed 2-0 in goals and 23-17 in shots. 
Calgary was on a penalty kill early in the third after Artem Grushnikov was called for hooking at 2:24. About four minutes into the third, Cooley and a Firebirds skater collided and this collision pulled Cooley’s left leg back and appeared to hyper-extend his hip. He was looked at by the training staff shortly after and remained in the game but showed signs of discomfort between whistles. 
At 6:48, the Firebirds forced a turnover in the neutral zone and came up on a rush. Logan Morrison set up Ryan Winterton for the one-timer that he blasted five hole on Cooley to put the Firebirds up 3-0. At 7:40, the Wranglers got a power play chance of their own and used this chance to get their first goal of the game. Rory Kerins set up Martin Frk with a cross ice pass and he finished the play with a goal. Jonathan Aspirot also assisted on this marker.
The Wranglers and Firebirds exchanged penalties after this goal and the next team to score was Coachella Valley. David Goyette beat Cooley on his blocker side and put the visitors up 4-1 at 14:58.
27 seconds later, Alex Gallant and Nikolas Brouillard got into it along the boards and were both given roughing calls. Gallant ended up with the extra two minutes for a double minor and was also called on a 10 minute misconduct for continuing the altercation.
The Wranglers opted to pull Cooley at 17:48 and did get one more on the board from Lucas Ciona at 19:25. He was screening Kokko and ended up deflecting the puck over the Firebirds netminder’s shoulder. Sam Honzek and Jeremie Poirier assisted on this marker.
That was all the offence Calgary could drum up and by the end of regulation, they fell by a final score of 4-2. None of the Wranglers ended up in the three star selections and shots finished 35-28 for Coachella Valley. 

Scoring stat summary

Jeremie Poirier – 1A
Rory Kerins – 1A
Lucas Ciona – 1G
Martin Frk – 1G
Sam Honzek – 1A
Jonathan Aspirot – 1A

Highlights

Next up

That wraps up the regular season series between Coachella Valley and Calgary. The Wranglers just had a quick two game home series and will be back on the road to face a couple of Pacific Division opponents in California. They’ll play the Bakersfield Condors next Friday at 8:00 p.m. MT and the San Diego Gulls on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. MT.
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