The Calgary Wranglers made their 2023 debut at home against the Abbotsford Canucks on Monday night. Oscar Dansk got the start in net and there was a pretty decent crowd of 4,195 to welcome the Wranglers back home. Unfortunately, the Wranglers were unable to come out with the win and snapped their six-game winning streak in a 5-2 loss. 

Lineup notes

Brett Sutter was back in this one after missing the last two games. It is still unknown as to if those were healthy scratches or maintenance games. Based on his play this season so far, I suspect he needed some time to rest if he was out of the lineup. During the post-game interviews, he mentioned how he was happy to go back to Ontario but also said it would’ve been nice to play in that game.
Read into that what you will but it sounds like the choice to take him out of the lineup was out of his control. 

Game at a glance 

The Canucks held most of the momentum in the first period. There wasn’t much action right off the hop but they got the only two power play opportunities in the opening frame. The second one resulted in a goal for the away team 14:40 into the period. 
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That was the only scoring action through the first period and the Wranglers were outshot 11-6 through the first 20 minutes. Jeremie Poirier and Matthew Phillips had the most notable scoring chances but did not connect. 
In the second period, more scoring ensued. The Canucks scored early into the period just 3:18 in. Dansk appeared to have control of the puck but somehow fell and slipped behind the goal line. The Wranglers seemed to be having quite a hard time regaining any control through the first half of the period and had back-to-back penalties to kill off around the 12-minute and 14-minute marks. 
After Calgary was able to stay out of the box for an extended period of time, Jakob Pelletier had an interesting play late in the period where he just threw the puck at the net mid-fall and it slipped behind the Abbotsford goaltender. This got a little spark going and cut their opponent’s lead in half. 
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The second period finished up with the Wranglers behind 2-1 and trailing 22-15 in shots. In the third period, the Wranglers made things interested with an early goal by Mitch McLain. McLain scored off a rebound just 1:29 into the period and it did require some further review. The conclusion was in the Wranglers’ favour and it remained a good goal.
The frustrating part of the third was the Wranglers put two more pucks in the net but no scoring changes were made. The first one the goal horn went off and it was immediately waved off. The second had heavy traffic in front and the fans behind the net celebrated the puck crossing the line. The on-ice officials called back both goals without further review.
Pelletier looked as if he had a chance on a partial breakaway to take the lead but rang the shot off the post. The Canucks took the puck the other way and it ended up in the back of Dansk’s net. They were running out of time to score and shortly after, Phillips rang a shot off the post as well. 
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All these opportunities to score but no luck for the home team. The Canucks scored two more goals before the end of the period and took all the momentum and hopes of winning out of the Wranglers. This game ended with a 5-2 final score and the Canucks ended up with a 34-28 in shots. 

Highlights

Next up

These two will continue their series into the week and play their second and final game against each other on Wednesday night. It’s a little earlier start time than usual with a 6:00 p.m. MT start at the Saddledome. You can catch this game live on AHL.TV or in-person at the ‘Dome.