Recap: Wranglers take down the Eagles in a 2-1 shootout victory
4 months ago
The Calgary Wranglers continued their week of hockey by kicking off a road series against the Colorado Eagles on Friday night. Going into this game, Calgary had dropped their last three games and were looking for a win to snap that streak. In a low-scoring battle, the Wranglers came out on top with a successful 2-1 shootout win.
Lineup notes
A couple of changes took place in this game’s lineup. Three players rotated out including Mark Duarte, Alex Gallant and Yan Kuznetsov. Ilya Solovyov returned to the lineup from injury for his first game in just over a month and knocked Kuznetsov out of the pairings. In Gallant’s and Duarte’s spots, Ilya Nikolaev and Rory Kerins slotted into the lineup.
Game at a glance
Dustin Wolf is still up with the Flames so Oscar Dansk got the nod for this game. On the other end, Ivan Prosvetov was between the pipes for Colorado. Just seconds into this game Jonathan Aspirot put up the first good shot on Prosvetov that went wide. Calgary wasn’t given much of an opportunity to build off the quick start as Brett Sutter was called for tripping just 37 seconds into the game.
Calgary successfully killed off this penalty and went on the power play shortly after at 4:29. Neither side capitalized on these early man advantages. A little later in the period, Jonathan Aspirot got another chance against the Eagles netminder and didn’t let this one go to waste. He scored at 13:16 to give the Wranglers a 1-0 lead. He worked the puck into the zone and snuck the puck over the shoulder of Prosvetov.
Three minutes later, Lucas Ciona got caught up with Keaton Middleton in a bit of a physical altercation but they both only sat for two minutes for roughing. The Wranglers kept their control of the first period and finished the opening 20 minutes up 1-0 and ahead 14-9 in shots.
In the second period, the opening half was played clean. The Eagles were looking for an equalizer and put up the bulk of the shots but weren’t able to change the score on their end. Their best chance was at 11:29 when Spencer Smallman was awarded a penalty shot when Jonathan Aspirot slashed Smallman on a partial breakaway.
Thankfully, the lone Wranglers goal-scorer didn’t pay for this play as Oscar Dansk stood tall against this shot and Smallman shot the puck wide. However, the Eagles made sure to secure a spot on the scoreboard shortly after this penalty shot attempt and scored less than a minute later at 12:13.
Ondrej Pavel scored for the Eagles when the Eagles won the offensive zone faceoff, took a couple of slap shots and Pavel picked up the rebound and scored on a wraparound. There were a couple of penalties to wrap up this period but no other scoring. At the end of 40 minutes, the Wranglers and Eagles were tied 1-1 and Colorado out-shot Calgary 13-9 in the middle frame.
These two played the third period safely and just kept making their best efforts to break the tie. Neither side took a penalty even when the emotions of the night could’ve persuaded them to act otherwise. They went back and forth in the third and at the end of regulation, no changes were made to the score. In the third, the Eagles out-shot the Wranglers 10-7.
Calgary and Colorado tried to decide this game in overtime and that didn’t yield a different result either. The Wranglers had more of the zone time in the extra five-minute frame and put up three shots from Ben Jones, Clark Bishop and Adam Klapka. The Eagles only put up one shot in overtime and they headed to a shootout.
Ivan Ivan shot first for the Eagles and scored on Dansk. Cole Schwindt was the first shooter for Calgary and missed. Callaham Burke shot next for the Eagles and was stopped and Jeremie Poirier came in and scored off of his attempt. Tanner Kero was the third Eagles shooter and was also stopped and William Stromgren made himself the clutch player of the game with the game-winning goal.
Calgary beat Colorado 2-1 in the shootout and the shots also reflected how close this game was with the Wranglers narrowly out-shooting the Eagles 34-33.
Next up
These two squads are right back at it on Saturday night to wrap up this series. Calgary looks to capture the sweep on the weekend with their next game taking place at 7:05 p.m. MT.
Let’s get rowdy! GAME DAY hosted by Flamesnation & Barn Burner at Greta Bar YYC is coming at you live on Saturday March 23rd! Join the crew at our favorite Game Day Watch Party spot, Greta, to watch Calgary take on Vancouver! Doors open at 7pm. Tickets are $10! Good food, good prizes and a guaranteed good time. This event is brought to you by McLeod Law LLP and Village Honda. Get your tickets at nationgear.ca before they sell out!
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