The Calgary Wranglers and Abbotsford Canucks just saw each other at the start of March and kicked off another two game series on Saturday night in Abbotsford, BC. The Canucks came into this game 5-4-1-0 in their last 10 games while the Wranglers came in 2-6-1-1. They were both on the heels of wins but it was the Wranglers who were on the losing side of this game with a 5-4 shootout decision.

Lineup notes

Due to call-ups to the Flames, Dryden Hunt and Adam Klapka were not available for this game. To fill their places, Martin Frk returned to the lineup after missing their last game against the Manitoba Moose as well as Kyler Kupka, who played in his first game back since Mar. 5.  
The blue line looked the same as expected and with Calgary running low on the blue line, Jonathan Aspirot skated as a forward for the second game in a row. 

Wranglers lines

Rory Kerins – Sam Morton – Martin Frk
William Stromgren – Clark Bishop – Kyler Kupka
Lucas Ciona – David Silye – Jonathan Aspirot 
Alex Gallant – Brett Davis – Parker Bell
Ilya Solovyov – Tyson Barrie
Yan Kuznetsov – Hunter Brzustewicz
Artem Grushnikov – Jeremie Poirier 
Devin Cooley

Game at a glance

The starting goaltenders for this game consisted of Devin Cooley for Calgary and Ty Young for Abbotsford. The Wranglers wasted no time in this game testing Young as Sam Morton was in the zone alone and kicked the puck up to himself with four Canucks circling him and took a shot from a distance that beat the Canucks’ netminder love side. This goal came at 1:07 on just the first Wranglers shot of the game and was assisted by Ilya Solovyov and Martin Frk.
Shortly after this goal, the Wranglers got on their first power play of the game and then had a penalty to kill off. The scoring was quiet after Morton’s opening goal but ended up exploding in the last four minutes of this period. Clark Bishop was in the box for a kneeing penalty and the Canucks evened up the score at 16:01 off a goal from Arshdeep Bains. Bains received a feed from behind the net and finished the play off with a one-timer. 
Things went back to even strength but the Canucks still had some gas in the tank to go for their first lead of the game. Just 58 seconds from Bains’ equalizer, Aatu Raty scored from the offensive zone faceoff dot and beat Cooley short side. Just under a minute later, Ilya Solovyov threw a backhand shot on net and Rory Kerins was right in the slot to bury the equalizing goal. This goal came at 17:48 and was assisted by Sam Morton as well.
The Wranglers snuck in one more goal before the buzzer marked the end of the first period. Kyler Kupka jumped on a puck behind the Canucks’ net that resulted in a turnover then passed the puck up to Clark Bishop, who finished off the play with a goal at 19:12.
After that eventful end to the period, the Wranglers held a 3-2 lead and shots were an even 6-6 at the end of 20 minutes. The second period was night and day on the scoring front and both netminders tightened things up for this frame. The story of the second was more about penalties when Ilya Solovyov and Sammy Blais took offsetting minors at 9:18, then Rory Kerins was called for high sticking at 11:26, then Jeremie Poirier was tagged for interference at 13:50, then finally, Jeremie Poirier and Linus Karlsson went to the box at 19:20 for offsetting roughing minors.
All those stoppages and majority power play time for the Canucks did not result in any changes to the scoreboard. At the end of 40 minutes, the Wranglers remained up 3-2. Shots in the second period favoured the Canucks 9-7. 
The opening half of the third period was heavily tilted towards the Canucks. They controlled things for the opening five minutes and were rewarded for this effort at 5:08 with the tying goal. Aatu Raty scored on Cooley again. This time, a puck was sitting just in front of the goal line and Raty reached in to push it the rest of the way and tie this game 3-3.
After this goal, the Wranglers got a couple of their first shots of the period but by 7:32, the Canucks secured the lead again with a goal from Linus Karlsson. Max Sasson came up on the rush and may have drawn a penalty on his attempt but once he got past the net, he passed the puck up to the doorstep for Karlsson to chip in. 
The Wranglers pulled the momentum back almost immediately after this goal and were peppering Young to keep themselves in this game. At 18:28, Devin Cooley went off for the extra attacker and the Canucks ended up being seconds away from the win. With just six seconds to go, Tyson Barrie came up big with his biggest goal of the year off a sharp angled shot. William Stromgren and Rory Kerins assisted on this marker.
This goal forced an overtime as the Wranglers and Canucks were tied 4-4 at the end of 60 minutes. Calgary earned a 13-9 edge in shots in the final frame of regulation. There were some big chances in overtime moreso for the home team but Cooley kept things composed. The Canucks had a shot off the crossbar that was inches away from deciding the game. The Wrangers got some momentum back in the extra frame when Christian Wolanin was called for tripping at 3:47. 
The Wranglers got a few shots on goal after this and had the better of the opportunities in the last minute of overtime. Shots in overtime finished 4-2 favouring Calgary and this game needed to be decided in a shootout. 
The Canucks opted to shoot first and Tristen Nielsen scored on the first shootout attempt. Rory Kerins shot first for Calgary but was denied. Abbotsford shooter too, Danila Klimovich, was stopped and so was Jeremie Poirier. Sammy Blais came in as the third shooter for the Canucks and closed the door on this game with a goal on Devin Cooley. 
The Canucks took the 5-4 shootout win and Calgary’s late climb in shots gave them the overall edge in the game 30-27. One Wrangler still got recognized in the three stars this game and it was Ilya Solovyov as the third star for his two assist night. 

Scoring stat summary

Rory Kerins – 1G, 1A
Ilya Solovyov – 2A
William Stromgren – 1A
Clark Bishop – 1G
Tyson Barrie – 1G
Martin Frk – 1A
Kyler Kupka – 1A
Sam Morton – 1G, 1A

Next up

The Wranglers still getting a point in this game protected them from being overtaken by the Canucks in the standings but things still remain neck and neck. Calgary and Abbotsford wrap up this weekend set on Sunday with a game time of 5:00 p.m. MT that has a direct effect on their places in the Pacific Division standings.
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