The Calgary Wranglers hosted their annual Winter Wranglerfest game on Sunday and basked in their largest crowd of the year of over 6,500. It was a special night already and even more so with Martin Frk playing his 500th AHL game and Arsenii Sergeev getting his first AHL start. The Wranglers came away with the win and beat the San Diego Gulls 2-1.

Lineup notes

Sergeev starting put Owen Say at backup for this game. The only other lineup change was on the blue line with Jeremie Poirier coming in for Simon Mack.

Wranglers lines

William Stromgren – Rory Kerins – Martin Frk

Dryden Hunt – Sam Morton – Matvei Gridin

Carter King – Clark Bishop – Parker Bell

Lucas Ciona – David Silye – Andrew Basha

Artem Grushnikov – Daniil Miromanov

Etienne Morin – Nick Cicek

Turner Ottenbreit – Jeremie Poirier

Arsenii Sergeev

Game at a glance

Sergeev was in net for Calgary and the Gulls also switched things up in net with Ville Husso starting in net for the visitors. Calgary came out with a lot of jump as they were playing in front of their largest crowd of the year and eager for that first gift toss goal after being shutout last year. They ended up finding it at 7:19, when Rory Kerins fed a pass from behind the net to Martin Frk, who ripped the shot past Husso. Another special moment for an already special game for number 29. Jeremie Poirier picked up the secondary assist on this marker.

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The team made their way over to the benches and the team staff dropped Wranglers merch from the press box area. They took baskets of items and tossed them out to fans all around the dome. After about five minutes of this celebration, it was back to hockey. At 7:43, the first penalty of the game was called against Rory Kerins. Matthew Phillips tried a quick shot off the faceoff one similarly to one he scored on in their Friday game. Calgary started to catch on and kept him off the board.

In the last five minutes of the period, Ryan Carpenter appeared to have scored but it was immediately waved off. He bowled over Sergeev and it was blatant goaltender interference. The rest of the period was pretty much all Gulls but Sergeev turned away everything he saw in the first. By the end of the period, the Wranglers were up 1-0 but were outshot 21-5.

Early in the second period, the Wranglers were penalty killing again when Andrew Basha was called for slashing at 4:30. The Anaheim Ducks affiliate got a few more shots up on this chance but nothing to even up the scoring. They had their best look of the game so far around the nine minute mark when a shot was taken that broke the stick and the rebound rang off the post.

At 11:10, Rory Kerins absolutely laid out Sasha Pastujov in the Wranglers zone and this caused quite a commotion between the teams. Chirps were flying and Travis Howe of the Gulls ended up saying something offensive enough to get called for a 10 minute misconduct for unsportsmanlike conduct. No other penalties were called on this call.

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The Wranglers had a couple of power play chances in the second half of the period, starting at 11:5,8 then practically a back-to-back at 14:48. Daniil Miromanov had a great slap shot look at 14:55, then at 15:21, Matvei Gridin scored the second Wranglers goal of the night. He was set up by Sam Morton and Daniil Miromanov and just picked a corner for a well-placed shot.

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Calgary had to penalty kill shortly after when Martin Frk was called for cross-checking at 16:35. At 17:20, the Gulls got on the board off a goal from Sam Colangelo, who beat Sergeev on a one-timer after the faceoff win. That was it for the scoring in the second and the Wranglers had a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes of play. Shots in the middle frame were much closer with it being 11-10 for the Gulls.

In the third, Travis Howe returned and was called for another misconduct at 3:21. This time for abuse of officials. The Gulls continued to make it hard for the Wranglers to protect their lead and the third played out without any other special teams scenarios. Most of the second half of the third period was all Gulls shot wise. At 13:35, San Diego appeared to have tied it but this one would also be waved off almost immediately. It was kicked in and didn’t require much further review to validate it.

At 17:30, the Gulls called a timeout for an offensive zone faceoff and pulled Husso for the extra attacker. The Wranglers pushed really hard in those last minutes to try and stop any comeback opportunities from the Gulls. Artem Grushnikov had a big blocked shot that put him in some discomfort then Rory Kerins also blocked a shot that he needed to leave the ice for after the fact. He went down the tunnel for a few minutes then came back to the bench. He didn’t go out for another shift but was there for his teammates and went out to center ice when the last horn rang and the Wranglers secured their 2-1 victory.

Arsenii Sergeev had his work cut out for him, stopping a total of 52 out of 53 shots. The Wranglers only managed to put up 20 in their win. All three stars went to Wranglers with Matvei Gridin getting the third star, Sergeev getting the second and Martin Frk getting the first.

Frk spoke about his big goal in this big game and said:

“It was great, you know. It was a great play from all the guys and RK (Rory Kerins) finds me there, and it always feels good when you play a kind of big games. You can celebrate in front of so many people on a special night like tonight. I’m really happy about it and I’m glad we won too.”

Scoring stat summary

Martin Frk – 1G

Rory Kerins – 1A

Jeremie Poirier – 1A

Matvei Gridin – 1G

Sam Morton – 1A

Daniil Miromanov – 1A

Highlights

Next up

The Wranglers break for Christmas now and won’t play their next series until next weekend. They’ll be on the road for two days to face the Tucson Roadrunners. The next game goes on Saturday, Dec. 27 at 7:00 p.m MT.