The Calgary Wranglers and Bakersfield Condors met for the first time this season with a Tuesday night match-up. It might not have been the most watched hockey game of the day with all 32 NHL teams playing, but they still had their share of action. After winning the last four games in a row, the Wranglers raised that streak to five with a shootout win over the Condors. The final score in this competition was 2-1.

There were no changes to the lineup going into this game and the goaltending match-up consisted of Devin Cooley on Calgary’s side and Collin Delia on the Condors’ side. The first five minutes of this game were pretty mellow with very few shots. In just the second Condors shot, Noah Philp beat Cooley blocker side. Seth Griffith picked up the assist on this marker at 5:25.

The Condors made some efforts to extend their lead and the Wranglers snuck in a shot here and there. The first penalty of the game was not called until 11:36 when Jonathan Aspirot was called for tripping. Devin Cooley had to be solid in this first penalty kill and the team was successful in killing it off.

Later in the period, the Wranglers got their first special teams situation when Phil Kemp was called for hooking from behind on Lucas Ciona’s breakaway. Ciona was awarded a penalty shot at 15:21 but unfortunately did not score on this opportunity. Shots went back and forth to finish the first and the period ended with the Condors ahead 1-0 on the scoreboard and 17-7 in shots.

In the second period, Calgary had a bit more zone time and calmed down the efforts of Bakersfield to help their netminder out. There was a penalty call to each side but neither affected the score. The second played out quite smoothly and the score finished the same way the frame ended. The Condors remained up 1-0 but the Wranglers outshot them 11-9.

In the third, it was all Calgary to start the period. It paid its dividends too as Parker Bell evened up the score at 2:36 with his first professional goal. David Silye broke up a pass that scooted up to Ilya Nikolaev. Nikolaev then set up Bell in the high slot and Bell ripped the one-timer home.

From there, each team was hungry to take the lead but were unable to come to a decisive finish by the end of 60 minutes of play. Shots in the third were 10-8 for Bakersfield. With a 1-1 score, these two went to overtime.

The Wranglers started overtime with William Stromgren, Sam Morton and Yan Kuznetsov as their top line was out for the majority of the dying minutes to try and find the go-ahead goal. Calgary quickly got the advantage when Ben Gleason was called for tripping just 46 seconds into the extra frame.

The Wranglers tried to get things going on this opportunity but had their power play cut short when Martin Frk was called for tripping at 2:25. Once three-on-three expired, the Wranglers were able to kill off their penalty. Then, believe it or not, another penalty was called at 4:33 against the Condors. Calgary got a couple of good looks on this final power play but needed a shootout to decide the winner of this competition.

The home team has the choice whether to shoot first or not and Bakersfield opted to take that shot on Cooley to start. Matthew Savoie started off the shootout and Cooley stopped his shot. For the Wranglers, William Stromgren shot first and tried a similar shot in deep that he had done in his last shootout appearance, but didn’t score on this one.

Next for Bakersfield was Lane Pederson. Devin Cooley stopped this shooter as well then Jeremie Poirier came out to take the second shot for Calgary. With some footwork and stick-handling, Poirier juked out Delia and scored his second shootout goal of the year.

After this, Cooley stopped the last Bakersfield shooter, Matvey Petrov, and the Wranglers celebrated their perfect road trip and dramatic ending to this match-up. The final score was 2-1 and shots finished up 38-28 favouring the Condors. Devin Cooley was awarded the first star for his 37-save night and Parker Bell earned the second star with his equalizer in the third.

Parker Bell – 1G

Ilya Nikolaev – 1A

This meeting between Calgary and Bakersfield was just a one-off this week and not a part of a typical two game series we see in the AHL. The Wranglers are finally headed back home and will host the Colorado Eagles for two games this weekend. The first half of the series is set for Friday night at 7:00 p.m. MT and continues into Sunday for a 1:00 p.m. MT puck drop.