The Calgary Wranglers are in the playoff qualification race and are just points away from securing a spot. They helped their own cause on Saturday when they hosted the Ontario Reign and earned the win on home ice. With some work from newcomers Ty Tullio, Calgary kid Carter Wilkie and an insurance marker from Yan Kuznetsov in the third period, the Wranglers earned a 3-1 win.

Wranglers lines

Rory Kerins – Sam Morton – Ty Tullio
William Stromgren – Sam Honzek – Martin Frk
Lucas Ciona – Clark Bishop – Parker Bell
Carter Wilkie – Kaden Bohlsen
Ilya Solovyov – Jonathan Aspirot 
Yan Kuznetsov – Hunter Brzustewicz
Artem Grushnikov – Jeremie Poirier
Joni Jurmo 
Devin Cooley

Game at a glance

Devin Cooley was back between the pipes for this game after picking up the win earlier this week against the Tucson Roadrunners. On the other end, Phoenix Copley got the start for Ontario. The Reign had a bit of a shaky start and the Wranglers picked up on this early.
Just 3:24 into the game, Rory Kerins fed the puck up to Ty Tullio from behind the net, and Tullio, the birthday boy, scored the opening lamp lighter. Sam Morton also assisted on this first goal. 
Shortly after this goal, the Wranglers had another look when Parker Bell was able to win the puck battle along the boards and this knocked the puck free for Carter Wilkie to score his first professional goal off a sharp-angled shot. Jonathan Aspirot and Ilya Solovyov picked up the assists.
The action didn’t stop after these two goals either when just about a minute and a half later, Parker Bell and Kaleb Lawrence dropped the gloves for one of Bell’s best tilts of the season at 6:40. They took their respective fighting majors and still had some chirps to exchange once they made it to the box. 
The Reign were able to get a few shots off after being caught on their heels to start the period. At 14:50, the Reign were called for holding, then another penalty at 16:18 for delay of game. The Wranglers didn’t add to their lead on either of these opportunities but still finished the first period ahead 2-0. Calgary also doubled up Ontario 10-5 in shots in the opening frame. 
Early in the second Ty Tullio was called for roughing but on this delayed penalty call, the Reign were able to get about 30 seconds of extra zone time before the whistle was blown. The next player to the box was Glenn Gawdin at 3:19 for hooking then William Stromgren for delay of game at 8:02.
Gawdin used this chance on the man advantage to score on a redirection in the Wranglers’ zone and cut Calgary’s lead in half. Gawdin’s goal came at 8:44 on the power play.
The Wranglers had a couple more penalties to kill off before the second period came to a close but managed to prevent any further scoring from their visiting competition. The score after 40 minutes was 2-1 Calgary and shots in this frame were 9-6 Ontario.
There were only a handful of shots from each side to start the third before Jonathan Aspirot and Francesco Pinelli were called for offsetting minors. Later in the period, the Reign rang a shot off the post at 6:02, then the officials reviewed it and confirmed it was no goal.
Around the midway mark of the period, the Wranglers were stringing some chances together and at 12:49, Sam Morton won a faceoff, which dropped the puck back to Yan Kuznetsov, who corralled the puck and ripped a shot past Copley to put Calgary up 3-1.
The more comfortable Wranglers braced themselves for the final push from the Reign in the last half of the period. Ontario pulled their netminder at 16:31 and got three shots on Devin Cooley before regulation ran out. Calgary picked up the win with a 3-1 final score and shots finished 24-23 for Ontario. All three stars of the game went to Wranglers, with Carter Wilkie getting the first, Sam Morton getting the second and Devin Cooley getting the third.  

Scoring stat summary

Rory Kerins – 1A
Ilya Solovyov – 1A
Ty Tullio – 1G
Carter Wilkie – 1G
Yan Kuznetsov – 1G
Sam Morton – 2A
Jonathan Aspirot – 1A

Highlights

Next up

The Wranglers and Reign’s rematch is less than 24 hours later at the Saddledome. The back end of this back-to-back will get started at 1:00 p.m. MT.
Sponsored by bet365: