Wranglers Recap: Dustin Wolf wins goaltending battle against the Canucks
1 year ago
The Calgary Wranglers played the second game of their weekday series against the Abbotsford Canucks on Wednesday night. They fell previously on Monday night in a 5-2 loss that snapped their six-game winning streak. They played a better all-around night on Wednesday and emerged victorious in an intense goaltending battle. The Wranglers finished up this series with a 3-0 win.
Game at a glance
Dustin Wolf got the start in net after Oscar Dansk got a game in on Monday. It was a game of plenty of scoring opportunities and almost just as many big-time saves to pair with those. Throughout the whole game, only three penalties were called in total and neither team capitalized on these opportunities.
In the first period, there was no scoring. Calgary out-shot Abbotsford 14-8 through the first 20 minutes. The second was a similar story with no scoring updates but it was Abbotsford who got more pucks on net in the second. Calgary had the lead in shots overall but the Canucks out-shot them 13-12 in the second frame.
In the third, fans were getting restless and the Wranglers finally gave them something to cheer about. Brett Sutter opened up the scoring six minutes into the third period with a perfectly timed shot. Assists went to Ben Jones and Matthew Phillips.
Just shy of two and a half minutes later, Matthew Phillips found the back of the net as well when he went up on a rush with Jakob Pelletier. Yan Kuznetsov picked up the secondary assist.
With the exception of Monday’s game, Phillips has earned points in every game he’s been back with the Wranglers since his NHL call-up with the Flames. That’s worked out to seven points in five games. Phillips missing a few games really hasn’t slowed him down from the looks of it.
The Wranglers had a decent lead to get them through the bulk of the third and the Canucks didn’t have much fight back. They only put up eight shots in the final 20 minutes and when they pulled their goalie with three and a half minutes to go, Mitch McLain scored the third Wranglers goal in the empty net with 3:02 to go in regulation.
Calgary finished up out-shooting Abbotsford 40-29 and Dustin Wolf picked up his fourth shutout of the season. He now sits second in the league in GAA and save percentage with a 2.09 GAA and .932 save percentage. He leads the league in wins with 19 (six ahead of the next closest netminder), and he also leads in shutouts with four. Not bad for December’s AHL goaltender of the month.
He stayed humble as always post-game saying,
“I’m feeling good about my game. I’ve kind of been in a bit of a grove and the team’s playing well in front of me so that makes my life easy.”
Highlights
Failed to load video.
Next up
The Wranglers will have a few days between their next game after playing quite a tight schedule since the Christmas break. They are staying at home and will host the Bakersfield Condors for a mini Battle of Alberta against the Oilers affiliate. This will be an afternoon game with puck drop scheduled for 1:00 p.m. MT.
Recent articles from Paige Siewert
