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Recap: Justin Kirkland gave the Wranglers a chance to win on Wednesday but they fall in a shootout
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Photo credit: David Moll/Calgary Wranglers
Paige Siewert
Dec 4, 2025, 10:00 ESTUpdated: Dec 4, 2025, 09:56 EST
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The Calgary Wranglers looked to keep their perfect season series alive against the Canucks after picking up a 3-2 win on Tuesday. Calgary had a narrow lead for the majority of the game but Abbotsford gave them a taste of their own medicine with a tying goal in the last minute to force overtime, then a shootout. Calgary fell in the shootout and lost 2-1 to the Vancouver Canucks’ affiliate.

Lineup notes

The Wranglers skated a lineup for this game during warm-up that varied from what was on the ice at puck drop. Carter King was announced to be on the first line but ended up coming out of the lineup at the last minute. Coming in was Alex Gallant for his first game after his takedown in his last fight.
Sam Morton was the most noticeable absence and the details around him coming out of the lineup are unknown. Aydar Suniev missed a game last week with an illness so it’s possible that floated over to Morton. There were also not any memorable moments in their game on Tuesday that caused an injury to number 45. This narrows down to possible reasons for his absence to be due to illness, injury or a possible call up situation. His play isn’t something that would cause a healthy scratch for this game.
For the netminders, Ivan Prosvetov is out with a lower-body injury. The Wranglers called up Connor Murphy from Rapid City, and he did make it in time to back up for this game. Cole Savage was signed on an ATO just in case Murphy didn’t make it and they would need an EBUG scenario. Savage skated in warm-up but Murphy made it in time for puck drop.

Wranglers lines

Parker Bell – Rory Kerins – Matvei Gridin
William Stromgren – Justin Kirkland – Martin Frk
Aydar Suniev – Clark Bishop – Andrew Basha
Alex Gallant – David Silye – Lucas Ciona 
Nick Cicek – Hunter Brzustewicz
Turner Ottenbreit – Daniil Miromanov 
Simon Mack – Artem Grushnikov 
Owen Say (starter)
Connor Murphy 

Game at a glance

Owen Say, who finished Tuesday’s game after Ivan Prosvetov left in the third due to an injury, got the start for this game. The Canucks switched things up in net with Nikita Tolopilo starting on their end of the ice. The first period was pretty even with each team taking their turns getting runs of shots.
Whistles were kept to a minimum and the scoring broke open at 16:32, when Justin Kirkland beat Tolopilo. Hunter Brzustewicz took a shot from the top of the circle and Kirkland was parked in front for the redirect. Martin Frk also picked up an assist on this opening goal. 
The Canucks put one more shot on goal before the end of the period, but Calgary was ahead 1-0 by the end of the first period. Calgary was outshot 11-9 in the first 20 minutes. The Wranglers came out hot in the second, looking for another goal. In the first eight minutes of the frame, they outshot the home team 9-1. 
By the midway mark, the Canucks started getting their numbers back up in the shots category and late in the period, Martin Frk took the first penalty of the game. He was called for interference at 19:36.
The score remained 1-0 Calgary at the end of 40 minutes and they outshot Abbotsford 11-10 in the middle frame. The pace in the third slowed right down and neither side was able to get much going. Shots were few and far between and it looked like one goal might just do it for the Wranglers. 
At 17:53, Abbotsford pulled Tolopilo for the extra attacker and at 18:03, David Silye was called for a faceoff violation for batting the puck with his hand. At 19:10, the Canucks scored the tying goal with a marker from Danila Klimovich deep in the zone.
There weren’t any other markers before the end of regulation and these teams needed at least overtime. Shots were only 5-3 Abbotsford in the third period. In overtime, the Canucks had some of the better looks in the extra frame, but five minutes wouldn’t solve it either. Overtime shots were 3-1 Abbotsford.
In the shootout, Justin Kirkland shot first and scored but the officials waved it off and took a bit of time to review it. Kirkland’s goal stayed and it set the Wranglers up in a good position for the rounds following. 
Say stopped the first Abbotsford shooter, Vilmer Alriksson, then Matvei Gridin was stopped in round two. Nils Aman was also stopped by Say and Calgary’s next shooter, William Stromgren, couldn’t score either. Ben Berard beat Say in round three and Rory Kerins was unable to score in the fourth round. Danila Klimovich scored in the fourth round and Abbotsford won 2-1. Overall shots finished 30-24 for Abbotsford. 

Scoring stat summary

Justin Kirkland – 1G
Hunter Brzustewicz – 1A
Martin Frk – 1A

Next up

The Wranglers are down to their last two road games of this 10 game trip. They’ll play the Ontario Reign this weekend on Saturday and Sunday before they return back to home ice next week. Their next game on Saturday will be at 7:00 p.m. MT.  
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