Series preview: Calgary Wranglers look to extend winning streak against San Jose Barracuda
8 months ago
The Calgary Wranglers look to bring some more good juju to the Saddledome this weekend as they host the San Jose Barracuda for a two-game weekend series. The Wranglers have yet to lose a game in regulation this season and have the best winning percentage in the league thus far with a 0.917. Call-ups have forced some lineup changes but they still find a way to adjust and fill in the gaps. Having the AHL’s reigning MVP between the pipes helps a lot too.
Projected lineups
Calgary
Adam Klapka – Ben Jones – Matt Coronato
Brett Sutter – Clark Bishop – Emilio Pettersen
Rory Kerins – Cole Schwindt – William Stromgren
Lucas Ciona – Mitch McLain – Alex Gallant
(Educated guess for forwards due to Connor Zary and Martin Pospisil call-ups and Matt Coronato’s demotion)
Ilya Solovyov – Nick DeSimone
Yan Kuznetsov – Colton Poolman
Sam Jardine – Jonathan Aspirot
Dustin Wolf
Oscar Dansk
San Jose
Danil Gushchin – Cole Cassels – Justin Bailey
Ethan Cardwell – Nathan Todd – Brandon Coe
Oskar Lindblom – Tanner Kaspick – Scott Sabourin
Adam Raska – Anthony Vincent – Ozzy Wiesblatt
Shakir Mukhamadullin – Leon Gawanke
Henry Thrun – Ethan Frisch
Valtteri Pulli – Radim Simek
Georgi Romanov
Magnus Chrona
Leaders
Calgary
Connor Zary – 6GP, 1G, 9A (Inactive, on NHL call-up)
Adam Klapka – 6GP, 4G, 3A
Jeremie Poirier – 4GP, 1G, 6A (Inactive, long-term injury)
San Jose
Danil Gushchin – 7GP, 3G, 9A
Justin Bailey – 7GP, 4G, 4A
Ryan Carpenter – 5GP, 3G, 3A
Notes and expectations
In roster move news, Ilya Solovyov was sent back down to the Wranglers this week after the completion of Rasmus Andersson’s four-game suspension. Solovyov got in two games with the big club and got to skate in the Heritage Classic against the Edmonton Oilers.
What the Flames needed on their roster this week was a forward. With Connor Zary’s hot start to the year, it was a pretty simple choice to bring him up in place of Dillon Dube for the time being. He played in Calgary’s game against the Dallas Stars on Nov. 1 and registered his first NHL goal off his first shot in his first NHL game. He was one of Calgary’s best players and while his contributions to the Wranglers will be missed for now, hopefully, his stint with the Flames is a lengthy one.
(Editor’s Note: Matt Coronato has been swapped down to the Wranglers, with Martin Pospisil going up to the Flames, in case you needed another excuse to duck out of work early to watch hockey.)
With Zary out, it’s time to look down the depth chart of the Wranglers for that next man up. Now I am no mind reader, but the likely choice seems to be Rory Kerins. If not him, then Ilya Nikolaev. At the point when this is being written, no additional players have been brought up from the Rapid City Rush. Both Kerins and Nikolaev have yet to play a game this season and head coach Trent Cull has not needed to sit anyone yet with how the team has started. Both spent the majority of last season with the ECHL’s Rapid City Rush and both battled injuries towards the back half of the season.
On the other side of things, the Wranglers will be facing a team that has had their issues in regulation. In the seven games the Barracuda have played so far this year, they have only picked up one win. What keeps them above water is the fact they’ve been collecting points in overtime losses. Their other six games are made up of three regulation losses and three overtime losses.
Goaltending has been an area of concern for the Barracuda with both their goaltenders giving up quite a few goals in their early games. Georgi Romanov has given up 13 goals in four games and sits at a 3.69 GAA and a 0.882 save percentage. The other netminder, Magnus Chrona, has given up 16 goals in three games and sits at a 6.27 GAA and a .835 save percentage.
Obviously, the Wranglers are the favourites in this series and pending anything funky, they should finish the weekend with a sweep. But that is why hockey is played on the ice and not on paper. They’ll kick things off on Friday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. MT and continue the series on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. Both games will be in Calgary at the Scotiabank Saddledome. Tickets are still available or you can stream for a fee on AHL.tv. FlamesNation contributors, Mike Gould and I will have updates on X (formerly Twitter).
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