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Recap: Calgary Wranglers dealt first series sweep of the season
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Photo credit: Kate Dibildox/Tucson Roadrunners
Paige Siewert
Nov 24, 2024, 12:00 ESTUpdated: Nov 24, 2024, 01:19 EST
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The Calgary Wranglers were looking for a better showing for themselves on Saturday after falling to the Tucson Roadrunners 5-3 on Friday. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
The Roadrunners kept their momentum going into this second game and dealt the Wranglers their first series sweep of the season. The final score was 6-2.

Lineup notes

There was one exciting lineup change in particular for this game. That was Alex Gallant’s season debut. Gallant has missed the last 18 games with an injury but is finally healthy enough to play. The alternate captain joined the forwards for the back end of this series. 
David Silye also returned to the lineup. He rotated out in the previous game but was right back for game two. The players who were scratched to make room for these two were Parker Bell and Hunter Brzustewicz. The line combinations were back to an even 12 and six. 

Game at a glance

Devin Cooley was back in the net to start this game against the Roadrunners. The home team went with their same netminder as Friday with Matthew Villalata getting the start. The Wranglers started this game off better but still gave up the opening goal to their opponents. After a bit of back and forth in the first half of the period, Clark Bishop was called for the first penalty of the game and the Roadrunners succeeded on this power play.
Sam Lipkin opened the scoring for the Roadrunners at 13:51 after the home team won the face-off and he was set up for a slap shot from the point. Artem Duda and Max Szuber assisted on this first marker.
Shortly after, it was the Roadrunners who were on the penalty kill and the Wranglers also capitalized. Dryden Hunt got a piece of a rebound that was being chipped at and evened up the scoring between these teams. William Stromgren and Jeremie Poirier assisted on this power play goal at 14:33.
Neither team was able to pull ahead by the end of the frame and the opening 20 minutes finished in a 1-1 tie. Shots were 15-10 for the Roadrunners to start this game. The Wranglers were hot out of the gates in the second period and got their go-ahead goal at 1:46 from Clark Bishop. His third goal in two games. Martin Frk took a shot mid-fall and Clark Bishop backhanded his rebound to make it a 2-1 game. Sam Honzek also assisted on this marker.
The Wranglers held onto this lead until about the halfway point of the period but then, things broke open. Kailer Yamamoto evened up the scoring at 9:50 with a goal that initially didn’t get called but seconds later was recognized as a tally.
The next goal from the Roadrunners came at 12:18 when Cameron Hebig scored on a backwards between-the-legs goal in the slot. Josh Doan and Austin Poganski picked up the assists. That didn’t even conclude Tucson’s second period push as Josh Doan sniped the top corner on the power play at 15:39.
That was the end of the second period damage and the Wranglers finished the second period behind 4-2. Shots in the middle frame were 17-13 for the Utah Hockey Club’s affiliate. Calgary tried for another early period push in the third but could not get anything past Villalta.
The Roadrunners added to their lead at 6:50 when Sam Lipkin scored his second goal of the night. He came up on a three-on-one and scored backdoor. Aku Raty and Ben McCartney assisted on this fifth goal of the evening.
The Wranglers were running out of time and opted to pull Cooley during a power play at 16:18. Even with a two-man advantage, they were unable to find another goal to bridge the gap in scoring. At 18:14, the Roadrunners buried an empty-netter from Montana Onyebuchi and pretty well put the game away.
The score finished up 6-2 and they lost in two consecutive games for the first time this season. The shot category finished at 39-36 for the Roadrunners. 

Scoring stat summary

Dryden Hunt – 1G
Clark Bishop – 1G 
Martin Frk – 1A
Sam Honzek – 1A
William Stromgren – 1A
Jeremie Poirier – 1A

Next up

If you’re missing Wranglers’ home action, there’s still just under two weeks before they return to the dome. Next week takes them back home for practice, and then they’ll stay in Canada to face the Manitoba Moose in Winnipeg on Friday and Sunday. Friday’s game gets going at 6:00 p.m. MT and Sunday’s game starts at 1:00 p.m. MT.

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