The Calgary Wranglers and the Tucson Roadrunners kicked off their best-of-three playoff series on Wednesday night. Tucson ended the year as the higher seed and gets home ice advantage for this entire series. So out of Tucson, Arizona, the Wranglers started their post-season in a tight and tough-fought first game. Calgary came out on top and earned a huge advantage in the series with a 2-0 final score and a 46-save shutout for Dustin Wolf. 

Wranglers lines 

Jakob Pelletier – Cole Schwindt – Matt Coronato 
William Stromgren – Sam Morton – Adam Klapka 
Mitch McLain – Ben Jones – Riley Damiani
Brett Sutter – Clark Bishop – Adam Klapka (Rotating between lines)
Jordan Oesterle – Ilya Solovyov 
Colton Poolman – Jeremie Poirier
Jonathan Aspirot – Mark Pysyk
Yan Kuznetsov
Dustin Wolf (starter)
Oscar Dansk

Game at a glance

The goaltending match-up for this game consisted of Dustin Wolf on Calgary’s end and Matthew Villalta on Tucson’s end. The Wranglers started the game with the better jump but also drew the first penalty call of the game. At 4:38, Dustin Wolf was called for delay of game and Matt Coronato served his minor call. 
Calgary held Tucson to just two shots on the first man advantage and Wolf turned them both away. The Wranglers regained some of their momentum from the start of the game when things went back to even strength but were back in the box at 10:19 when Mitch McLain was called for holding the stick.
The Roadrunners had a run of shots and Dustin Wolf continued to shine. After another successful penalty kill, they were back to work again when Ben Jones was called for tripping at 14:51. This kill was also successful and as the first period came to a close, some emotions boiled over that gave Calgary their first power play to start the second as Jan Jenik was called for roughing. At the end of 20 minutes, there was no score and the Roadrunners outshot the Wranglers 15-13.
The Wranglers started the second on their first power play of the game and Cole Schwindt led the way on this man advantage with the only two shots on the power play. Once things got back to even strength, a shift was felt towards the Roadrunners and they rattled off some shots on Dustin Wolf. 
However, the Calgary skaters were able to build off the play of their netminder and get on the board at 6:14. Adam Klapka got the puck up to Cole Schwindt on a stunning evasive manoeuvre and Schwindt finished the play by backhanding the puck into the back of the net. Jakob Pelletier also assisted on this marker. 
Both sides were determined to score the next one in the minutes following with some high-paced opportunities going back and forth. Later in the period, the Wranglers were back on the power play after Austin Poganski was called for slashing at 14:28. 
At 16:15, Jeremie Poirier took a shot from the point with Adam Klapka parked in the slot. Klapka tried jamming this shot in and was successful. However, this goal was waved off by officials, reviewed and the call stood. There was not a clear explanation, but Klapka did appear to make contact with Villalta towards the end of the play and the ref seemed to motion for a hand pass.
Play continued after this goal review and in the last minute of play, three more penalties were dealt with Clark Bishop being called for holding at 19:28, Jan Jenik called for roughing at 19:28 and Sam Morton called for hooking at 19:56. At the end of 40 minutes, the Wranglers were ahead 1-0 but were outshot 15-13. 
The third period started with the Roadrunners on a four-on-three. These came and went then a couple more calls were dealt in the opening half of the period. No score changes happened as a result but the Wranglers did have a good push around the midway mark. The Roadrunners turned the tables with their efforts as time was running low.
At 18:24, Tucson pulled Matthew Villalta and tried to make something happen with their extra skater. Instead, Matt Coronato picked off a puck and made a very patient play that was finished off with an empty netter at 19:19. Coronato’s first playoff goal came unassisted. 
That wrapped up the scoring and when the time wound down, the Wranglers secured a 2-0 win on a stunning shutout from Dustin Wolf. This was Wolf’s fifth career shutout in the post-season and his fifth shutout of the year for the Wranglers. He rightfully earned the first star of the night and Cole Schwindt earned the second star of the night for scoring the game-winner. Matthew Villalta of the Roadrunners was awarded the third star. Shots in this one finished 46-35 for the Roadrunners.

Scoring stat summary

Cole Schwindt – 1G
Matt Coronato – 1G
Adam Klapka – 1A
Jakob Pelletier – 1A

Next up

These two get a day away from each other and will continue their series on Friday night. They’ll have the late game slot again with an 8:00 p.m. MT puck drop. If the Wranglers win the next game, they will proceed to the next round against the Coachella Valley Firebirds, so it already is do or die for the Roadrunners.
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