The Calgary Wranglers and Coachella Valley Firebirds know each other all too well. Between frequent regular season meetings, they’ve also seen each other in playoffs every year since both of their teams joined the league in 2022. This year, they face each other in round one of the Calder Cup Playoffs.
If you were reminiscing on previous playoff meetings between these two, the lingering memory of a triple overtime two seasons ago, ran it back for this game. They didn’t beat their previous record, but the result was the same. Coachella Valley won it in triple overtime, this time with a final score of 4-3. 

Lineup notes

The Wranglers got center David Silye back from injury in time for this game. Silye suffered a lower body injury in mid-March that kept him out of the lineup for just over a month. On the other hand, a noticeable absence for this game was Ilya Solovyov. It is unclear what his status is as he played their last game on Sunday. 
On the goaltending side of things, the starting netminder wasn’t set in stone enough to predict with absolute certainty. Waltteri Ignatjew’s first professional shutout on Sunday against the Barracuda and the confidence he showed in that game earned him the start for the first game of this series. Connor Murphy dressed as back up.

Wranglers lines

Rory Kerins – Sam Morton – Dryden Hunt
William Stromgren – Sam Honzek – Martin Frk
Clark Bishop – Carter King – Ty Tullio
Alex Gallant – David Silye – Lucas Ciona 
Yan Kuznetsov – Hunter Brzustewicz 
Artem Grushnikov – Simon Mack
Jonathan Aspirot – Jeremie Poirier
Waltteri Ignatjew
Connor Murphy

Game Summary

Trent Cull was back behind the bench for this game for the first time in a couple of months since his NHL call-up. He and the other coaching staff decided to go with who has performed for them the best lately in net, and that was Waltteri Ignatjew. On the other end of the ice, Nikke Kokko got the start for the Firebirds. 

1st period 

Dryden Hunt recorded the first shot of the game just nine seconds in and Calgary was trying to get ahead early. They had most of the pressure through the opening minutes but despite that, Coachella Valley still found the back of the net first. At 3:39, John Hayen scored on Ignatjew with the time and space he had to pick and rip a low far side shot. 
There wasn’t much push back from Calgary after this goal and the Firebirds got another goal on the board at 7:37 from Brandon Biro. It was just a quick pass from behind the net and before Ignatjew could locate the puck, it was in the back of his net. 
This shook the Wranglers up but got them going in their zone with a few chances from their guys. The first penalty of the game was called against Alex Gallant at 13:14 for slashing. Shortly after this penalty expired, the Wranglers were back to the box. This time Martin Frk was taking a seat for hooking. Calgary finally got a power play at 18:46 but didn’t capitalize on this before the period ended. At the end of 20 minutes, the Firebirds had a 2-0 lead and shots were 11-10 for Calgary.

2nd period

The Wranglers had a bit of power play time carry over into the second, but this came and went without any recorded shots. This frame was mostly riddled with penalty calls. First with a holding call against Yan Kuznetsov at 3:08, then a slashing call against Rory Kerins at 7:54, then an interference call against Ben Meyers at 9:02, then a delay of game call against Jonathan Aspirot at 11:22. All came and went without scoring updates. 
A scoring change occurred at 14:05 when Mitchell Stephens redirected a loose puck in front of the crease through Ignatjew. At the time of the goal celebration, Jani Nyman and Ty Tullio were called for offsetting minors for unsportsmanlike conduct. 
The penalty filled period ended with an interference call against Martin Frk in the last 26 seconds of the frame. In the second period, the Firebirds pulled way ahead in shots with a 15-6 edge. 

3rd period 

The Wranglers started the third with some work to do on the penalty kill for the rest of Frk’s penalty. They succeeded in killing it off and made their efforts to drum up some scoring chances. One of the best looks they had up until this point came from Dryden Hunt at 2:39. He looked to have a sure thing one-timer and was robbed by Nikke Kokko. 
A couple of minutes later, the emotions of the game showed themselves when Clark Bishop and Nikolas Brouillard exchanged some gloves on punches and were sent to the box for roughing. On this four on four, Dryden Hunt got another opportunity that he didn’t let pass him by. His line got set up in the offensive zone and Hunt took a shot from the blue line and scored through traffic. His goal came at 6:51 and was assisted by Martin Frk and Rory Kerins. 
Things were getting tense as time went on in this period and a sequence in the last six minutes of the game left Nikke Kokko without a stick. At 14:53, Lucas Ciona parked himself in front of the net and tipped in the second Wranglers goal of the night to put his team within one. David Silye earned the primary assist and Jonathan Aspirot earned the secondary. 
At 17:52, the Wranglers pulled Ignatjew to try and pull off a full comeback with the extra attacker. He needed to briefly come back when the Wranglers were called for a hand pass and needed a neutral zone faceoff. By 18:55, he was back on the bench.
The Wranglers were determined and with just seven seconds to go in regulation, Rory Kerins took a feed from Martin Frk and forced the puck over the line. During this well-deserved celebration, Jani Nyman and Martin Frk got tied up together and were given roughing double minors.
At the end of regulation, these two were at an even 3-3 score and Calgary outshot Coachella Valley 11-5 in the third.

Overtime

The Wranglers came into overtime with the same momentum they generated in the third, and held most of the zone time through the opening half of the extra frame. Rory Kerins had another chance to be the hero early in this frame and Dryden Hunt had another good look around the five minute mark that just went wide. When they saw the puck go the other way, they did a good job boxing guys out and poke checking their opponents to prevent them from setting anything up.
When Ignatjew was challenged, he kept it together. Around the six minute mark, he stopped a chance off his shoulder that was the Firebirds’ best look in over a period. At 11:04, the Firebirds had another big chance when Sam Morton took a delay of game penalty. Their power play had gone zero for size up to this point but for what was at stake, this felt like one of the biggest penalty kills for Calgary of the game. Ignatjew remained composed and made a few saves on attempts that very well could have ended the game. 
He continued to do this beyond the penalty kill and as they got down to the last five minutes of overtime, the slashing and hits got noticeably rougher. The officials were keeping their whistles away for most of this frame and nothing extreme happened that required a call. At the end of the first overtime frame, Coachella Valley outshot Calgary 8-7.

Second overtime  

By this point of the game, some players who were Wranglers two years ago were likely getting a bad case of deja vu. One of those players who was on the 2023 squad was Rory Kerins. Kerins tried to stop this game from going any further with a great one timer chance in the slot just 34 seconds in. This wouldn’t decide this game and play continued.
Calgary and Coachella Valley kept things disciplined on the special teams side of things and both of them were playing with a shorter bench. Calgary’s fourth line didn’t see much of any ice time in either overtime frames and the same story was true for Coachella Valley.
They were trying to shorten their shifts and the fatigue of the players was showing. The pace was slowing down as the players tried to preserve their energy. This frame was mostly Firebirds and the second overtime did not end up deciding the game. The shots were 11-2 Coachella Valley in the second overtime and they would need at least a third overtime in this one.

Third overtime 

The report on this period is short as it only went for two minutes. Mitchell Stephens scored his second goal of the game on just the first Firebirds shot of the period. Stephens had his back to the net and tipped the puck in. Here’s a look at the goal that ended it.
The Firebirds took game one with a 4-3 win and shots finished 50-39 for Coachella Valley.

Scoring stat summary

Rory Kerins – 1G, 1A
Dryden Hunt – 1G
Lucas Ciona – 1G
David Silye – 1A
Martin Frk – 2A
Jonathan Aspirot – 1A

Next up

The way they schedule worked out, there will be a three day break until game two in this playoff series. After an extended game like that, the players might not mind the extra rest. These two are guaranteed at least one more game against each other on Saturday as the Wranglers face elimination in a must-win game that starts at 7:00 p.m. MT.
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