Wranglers Preview: AHL Battle of Alberta is coming to Calgary
1 year ago
The Calgary Wranglers host the Oilers affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors for the first time this season. They have played four other games on the road and sit with a perfect 4-0 record against the Condors. Bringing Bakersfield to Calgary will surely draw some Edmonton Oilers fans to the ‘Dome so ticket selections have been expanded to include the second deck per the team.
Projected Lineups
Calgary
Forwards: Mitch McLain, Brett Sutter, Cole Schwindt, Matthew Phillips, Matt Marcinew, Ilya Nikolaev, Ben Jones, Clark Bishop, Alex Gallant, Kevin Rooney, Rory Kerins, Martin Pospisil, Adam Klapka, Emilio Pettersen, Connor Zary
Defensemen: Josh Brook, Colton Poolman, Ilya Solovyov, Dennis Gilbert, Jeremie Poirier, Nick DeSimone, Yan Kuznetsov, Nicolas Meloche
Goaltenders: Dustin Wolf, Oscar Dansk
Bakersfield
Forwards: Luke Esposito, Xavier Bourgault, James Hamblin, Gregg McKegg, Noah Philp, Tyler Benson, Brad Malone, Dino Kambeitz, Graham McPhee, Seth Griffith, Samuel Dove-McFalls, Ty Tullio, Carter Savoie, Raphael Lavoie, Justin Bailey
Defensemen: Jason Demers, Vincent Desharnais, Michael Kesselring, Yanni Kaldis, Philip Kemp, Alex Peters, Max Gildon, Darien Kielb
Goaltenders: Calvin Pickard, Olivier Rodrigue
Leaders
Calgary
Matthew Phillips – 25GP, 19G, 18A
Jakob Pelletier – 31GP, 15G, 19A (Inactive on NHL call-up)
Connor Zary – 31GP, 10G, 22A
Bakersfield
Seth Griffith – 30GP, 9G, 17A
Xavier Bourgault – 30GP, 8G, 7A
Michael Kesselring – 29GP, 10G, 3A
Notes and expectations
Prior to the first game of this series, the Wranglers had quite a few roster changes. Jakob Pelletier and Walker Duehr were called up to the Flames. As a result, the Wranglers called up Rory Kerins, Matt Marcinew and Ilya Nikolaev from the Rapid City Rush to earn some depth back.
Kerins is the only of the three to get ice time with the Wranglers so far this season. He has two points in five games with the Wranglers this season and last played with them on Dec. 11 against the San Diego Gulls. I would expect to see Kerins once again in one or both of these games. The other two, might not be as likely.
The Wranglers are definitely the favourites going into this series with the Condors sitting ninth in the Pacific Division and the Wranglers in second. The Condors have only played one other game since their match-up against Calgary and beat the Ontario Reign 3-2.
It will be interesting to see what type of dynamic the location will bring as they finally get a chance to play more of a Battle of Alberta-esque game when they’re actually in Alberta. The Wranglers usually find a way to score a large number of goals against the Condors. On Dec. 28, they scored nine, and in their first two games against each other this season, they scored another five in each of those games. We’ll see if the rivalry brings out some other emotionally charged action as well and how much the atmosphere of the crowd adds.
Things will kick off between these two on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. MT at the Scotiabank Saddledome. They’ll finish up their series on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. MT. You can catch these games live or stream them on AHL.TV. FlamesNation contributors Mike Gould and myself will have updates on Twitter.
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