Jonathan Castagna with a chance off this quick release. He had two goals in yesterday's game.
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Wranglers Recap: Axel Hurtig puts on a two goal performance to secure weekend sweep
Photo credit: Photo Credit: Eric Boldt/Calgary Wranglers
Oct 4, 2026, 10:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 4, 2026, 03:26 EDT
The Calgary Wranglers were looking for their first sweep of the season after beating the Abbotsford Canucks 4-2 in their season opener on Friday. The Canucks got on the board first in this game, then the Wranglers managed to even it up with Axel Hurtig’s first professional goal in the second period. Calgary took control of this game in the third and sealed it with an empty netter to win 4-2 and sweep the Canucks on the weekend.
Lineup notes
Calgary only made a couple of tweaks to their lineup for their second game of the season. Arsenii Sergeev was swapped out for Kirill Zarubin and Ben Jones and Rory Kerins swapped lines at centre. During warm-ups, Carter Wilkie and Kyle Walker dressed and came out for a skate as extras, but did not slot in for this game.
Wranglers lines
Dryden Hunt – Ben Jones – Aydar Suniev
William Stromgren – Rory Kerins – Alex Nylander
Sam Morton – Tyson Gross – Andrew Basha
Will Dineen – Jonathan Castagna – Luke Philp
Jake Livingstone – Hunter Brzustewicz
Abram Wiebe – Mike Benning
Axel Hurtig – Kent Anderson
Kirill Zarubin
Game at a glance
The Canucks also swapped out their starting netminder for this game, going with Ty Young. There was a good pace to start this game, with a lot of activity in the neutral zone. It took both sides about five minutes to register a shot on goal. The Wranglers’ first best chance came from Jonathan Castagna at 8:10 when Sam Morton was able to protect the puck and pass it up.
A couple of minutes later, Ty Mueller, who also scored in Friday’s game, took a shot through traffic that Zarubin didn’t quite see the whole way. It also looked like it might have redirected at the last second. This goal came at 10:44 and gave the Canucks their first lead of this series.
Through the back half of the period, the Wranglers had a couple more high-danger scoring chances, with Aydar Suniev getting into the dirty areas in the crease trying to elevate a loose puck and Dryden Hunt taking a quick shot off the draw in the offensive zone. By the end of the first period, the Wranglers were down 1-0 and trailing 12-8 in shots.
In the second period, Calgary started getting some momentum back around the five minute mark and at 6:09, Axel Hurtig put up a blast for his first professional goal. This goal was assisted by Alex Nylander and William Stromgren.
Not the first time he's scored in this building, but the first time scoring in this uniform. Axel Hurtig nets his first professional goal with the Wranglers.
Just past the nine minute mark, William Stromgren and Kole Lind got tied up in front of the Abbotsford net and took each other down to the ice. They were called for roughing and shortly after they came out of the box, another offsetting roughing call was made against Axel Hurtig and Vilmer Alriksson at 12:46.
The Canucks’ best chance to regain the lead came at 14:59, when Vilmer Alriksson was on a partial breakaway and tried a shot on Zarubin’s glove side. Zarubin grabbed this with ease and kept it an even 1-1 game.
Kirill Zarubin has been solid in this game and is playing with a lot of confidence. This is his latest glove save off a breakaway.
At 18:55, the first man advantage was given to the Canucks when Abram Wiebe was called for delay of game. The period finished out and the score at the end of 40 minutes was 1-1. Shots were up to 26-15 for the Canucks.
The Wranglers still had 56 seconds of a penalty to kill off in the third period and shortly after they succeeded on the kill, they took the lead with a goal from Luke Philp. Rory Kerins and Dryden Hunt picked up the assists on Philp’s first goal of the season and first goal as a Wrangler. Philp was on the Stockton Heat the last year before the Wranglers relocated and did play games in the Saddledome over the Covid-19 bubble year.
It's been a few years since I clipped a Luke Philp goal, but I am sure glad he is back. He predated the Wranglers with the Stockton Heat so this will go down as his first goal as a Wrangler.
The Wranglers managed to get their first proper power play of the game at 11:16, when Jimmy Schuldt was called for kneeing on Alex Nylander. Nylander was okay and managed to get back up and give Schuldt a piece of his mind but not enough to draw a call against Calgary. The Wranglers went on the man advantage with a one goal lead and 7:20 to go in regulation.
Just seconds after this power play expired, Axel Hurtig took another shot from the point through traffic and scored his second of the night to put the Wranglers up 3-2. Assists went to Aydar Suneiv and Mike Benning.
I'm getting the feeling Hurtig likes scoring in the Saddledome. He puts up his second goal of the night to put the Wranglers up 3-1.
The next shot on goal was against the Wranglers and this resulted in an Abbotsford goal from Braeden Cootes at 16:16 to put the visitors back within one. At 18:18, the faceoff was set to be in the Wranglers’ zone, so the Canucks pulled Ty Young for the extra attacker. Just over a minute later, Calgary was able to put this game away with a long range empty net goal from Hunter Brzustewicz. This goal was unassisted.
A long range empty net goal from Hunter Brzustewicz puts this game away
Ty Young came back out to finish the game and the Wranglers secured the 4-2 win. Shots finished 33-32 for the Canucks and the three stars all went to Calgary skaters once again. Kirill Zarubin was awarded the third star, Luke Philp was awarded the second and Axel Hurtig was awarded the first.
Hurtig, the former Calgary Hitmen captain, said after his first goals in the AHL:
“I’m just proud of the work I put in and the organization has seen me and it’s been a wild ride with two years with the Hitmen and after that.”
Head coach Brett Sutter also commented on Hurtig’s performance in this game and said:
“We were laughing after the game. I didn’t know we got a Swedish sniper when we got Big Axe (Axel). But good for him. I thought he played great. You just don’t recognize a lot of the other things. The blocked shots, the good sticks, the always staying in the way, and it’s nice to see someone like him get rewarded.”
Scoring stat summary
Mike Benning – 1A
Axel Hurtig – 2G
Rory Kerins – 1A
William Stromgren – 1A
Dryden Hunt – 1A
Luke Philp – 1G
Hunter Brzustewicz – 1G
Aydar Suniev – 1A
Alex Nylander – 1A
Highlights
Next up
The Wranglers continue their season-opening homestand with another weekend series next weekend against the Bakersfield Condors. Game one of that series will be on Friday, Oct. 9 at 7:00 p.m. MT.
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