The Calgary Wranglers and San Jose Barracuda faced off on Friday night for just the third time this season. It was both of their first games back from the AHL All-Star break and the Wranglers didn’t skip a beat. They scored three unanswered goals throughout the game and went on to win 4-1. Ben Jones had a three-point night and Dustin Wolf had a 42-save night to help lead the way to this victory. 

Lineup notes

Jakob Pelletier and Dennis Gilbert are up with the Flames so they were not active in this game. The Wranglers also provided an injury update prior to the game that confirmed that Oscar Dansk’s injury he suffered in their last game against the Bakersfield Condors will keep him out of the lineup for at least a week.
Martin Pospisil has been out of the lineup since December 30, 2022. The additional unfortunate news is Rory Kerins and Ilya Nikolaev are both out with upper body injuries. Both were go-to call-ups from the Rapid City Rush so the organization will have to look deeper into that roster if they need some reinforcements. 

Game at a glance

The Barracuda started the game with quite a jump putting up 17 shots through the first period. Dustin Wolf turned away every single one of them. It was actually the Wranglers who made it on the board first with a tip-in from Matthew Phillips 4:37 into the game. 
This was only the third Wranglers shot of the game and Ben Jones and Colton Poolman assisted on Phillips’ 25th goal of the season. They finished the period up 1-0 but behind 17-9 in shots.
The Wranglers’ momentum continued into the second period and Ben Jones made it a multi-point night for himself with a slap shot goal 8:02 into the period. Jones’ goal was unassisted.
The Wranglers snuck another lamp lighter into the period with a goal later in the period off the stick of Jeremie Poirier. He carried the puck into the zone, shot through traffic and buried his own rebound in an extraordinary individual effort.
A good return to the lineup for the young defenceman, who was scratched from the Wranglers’ lineup in their last game. Kevin Rooney and Nicolas Meloche assisted on Poirier’s fifth goal of the year. 
The Wranglers finished up the second period ahead 3-0 and closed the gap in shots out-shooting San Jose 17-6 in the second. At this point in the game, Calgary took a 26-23 lead in shots. 
Early in the third period, the Wranglers faced an unfortunate situation. Kevin Rooney was cutting across the crease to put a shot off and in the air, and his skate caught Connor Zary in the face. It looked like he was holding his cheek and soon after he was attended to and escorted off the ice with the team athletic trainer. 
Seconds later, the Wranglers scored their fourth goal of the night. Radim Zohorna elevated a shot over Aaron Dell. Matthew Phillips picked up his second point of the night and Ben Jones picked up his third point of the night with both of them assisting. 
A few minutes later, Zary made his return back to the ice with still the majority of the third left to play. The Wranglers held their four goal lead just about to the bitter end. Unfortunately, the Barracuda finally snapped their scoreless run and beat Dustin Wolf with 2:20 to go in regulation and robbed him of his fifth shutout of the season. 
The Wranglers win this one 4-1 and only put up four shots in the third period. Shots finished up 43-30. Dustin Wolf was awarded the first star of the night, Ben Jones was awarded the second star of the night and Matthew Phillips picked up the third. 

Next up

This series continues into Saturday where the Wranglers will stick around and play the Barracuda for the back half of the series. Game time is set for an hour earlier than Friday’s game with a 7:00 p.m. MT start time. You can catch their next game on AHL.tv.