The Calgary Wranglers and Bakersfield Condors haven’t faced each other since early November. As the Oilers and Flames’ AHL affiliates and Pacific Division opponents, it feels odd they haven’t seen each other as of late, but the time has finally come. They meet just once this weekend for a Friday night match-up. Calgary controlled the first, but after an explosive second, the Condors were too far out of reach. They ended up losing 8-2 in this game.

Wranglers lines

Rory Kerins – Sam Morton – William Stromgren
Sam Honzek – Clark Bishop – Martin Frk
Lucas Ciona – Parker Bell – Ty Tullio
Kyler Kupka – Brett Davis – Alex Gallant
Ilya Solovyov – Jonathan Aspirot 
Yan Kuznetsov – Hunter Brzustewicz
Artem Grushnikov – Jeremie Poirier
Devin Cooley

Game at a glance

Devin Cooley got the start for this game for Calgary. On the other end of the ice, Brett Brochu was given his first start with the team. Brochu was recalled yesterday on an emergency basis and had been playing this season with the Fort Wayne Komets of the ECHL. The Wranglers got rolling early and were creating early chances in the zone in the opening minutes of the game.
They ended lighting the lamp first at just 3:08. Ilya Solovyov set up Jeremie Poirier for a shot from the point that Parker Bell finished the play on. He scored on the rebound and helped bring the Wranglers an early lead over the Condors. 
The Condors were called for a penalty on the shift right after this goal and the Wranglers only registered a single shot during the power play. Bakersfield started getting some shots off and got a power play of their own at 13:13 when Lucas Ciona was called for cross-checking. These teams were keeping up to each other in shots for the most part but Calgary created more of a gap in the last few minutes of the period.
With just six seconds to go in the first, Rory Kerins sprung Sam Morton and Hunter Brzustewicz on a rush and the passing play set up Morton to score the second goal of the night. 
At the end of the first period, Calgary was up 2-0 and leading 12-7 in shots. The second period started with some controlled pressure from Calgary and just past the five minute mark, things started to fall apart. Matvey Petrov scored the first goal for the home team when the Wranglers failed to control the puck along the boards and Petrov took the puck right to the net through the pads of Cooley. This goal came at 5:26.
On the next shot just over a minute later, Calgary got caught sleeping in their zone again and Noah Philp scored the equalizer for the Condors. This goal was at 6:47. After the puck dropped for the next faceoff, Alex Gallant and Alex Kannok Leipert had a chat behind the play and decided to go for the fight. 
Not even a full minute later, the Condors struck again to take their first lead of the game. Drake Caggiula came into the zone on a two-on-one and elevated a shot over Cooley’s glove side to score the go-ahead goal.
The Wranglers may have gotten away with one a few minutes later when Caggiula was trying for another goal and was hooked by Ilya Solovyov on the play. The puck was loose behind Cooley, and Caggiula ended up colliding with the Calgary netminder and knocking the net off. The officials took a look briefly and this play turned into a Bakersfield power play instead of goal number four. 
Unfortunately for Calgary, goal number four wasn’t far behind. Ethan Keppen carried the puck around the back of the net and faked like he was going short side and went the other direction to beat Cooley at 14:30. Devin Cooley had visible frustration after this goal and smacked the upper half of his body down on the ice.
At 16:17, Bakersfield got their fifth of the period when Cam Dineen took a shot with Noah Philp on the doorstep to slightly redirect the puck past Cooley. That was the end of the damage in this painful period, and at the end of 40 minutes, the Condors led 5-2. Shots in this frame were 17-13 Bakersfield.
The Wranglers came out for the third period business as usual and put up the first couple of shots of the frame. At 2:41, Jeremie Poirier was called for interference. Shortly after his penalty ended, Ethan Keppen scored the sixth goal for the Condors exactly five minutes into the third. It was a broken play behind the net that ended up setting up Keppen for a one-timer he blew past Cooley.
This was not the end of the misfortune as Cooley lost an edge at 12:58 and fell down outside the crease and left the net wide open for James Hamblin to score the seventh goal for the home team. Cooley spent the majority of this opposing goal celebration face down on the ice, processing the error of the last play.
A little later in the period, Kyler Kupka was called for holding and about 30 seconds into that power play, Connor Carrick scored goal number eight over the blocker of Cooley. That was the end of the damage and once the time ran out, the Condors won 8-2. Shots finished 36-35 for Bakersfield.

Scoring stat summary

Parker Bell – 1G
Hunter Brzustewicz – 1A
Rory Kerins – 1A
Jeremie Poirier – 1A
Ilya Solovyov – 1A
Sam Morton – 1G

Next up

The Wranglers continue their road trip on Saturday, just in a different city in California. They’ll head over to San Diego to face the Gulls for their last meeting of the regular season. Puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m. MT. 
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