The ghost of Christmas Past came to visit the Calgary Wranglers on Friday and he came in the form of Matthew Phillips. The Calgary Wranglers hosted the San Diego Gulls on Friday for just their second meeting of the season and it was a battle of a game. It included some depth scoring from Lucas Ciona and Parker Bell and a familiar face in Matthew Phillips doing damage on the other side of the ice, including two games and an assist on the game-winner. Penalties were starting to get out of hand into the third and it carried over into the eventual overtime this game needed to be decided. It resulted in a 4-3 win for the Anaheim Ducks’ affiliate to kick off this weekend series.

Lineup notes

There were quite a few organizational moves that affected the Wranglers going into this game. Connor Murphy was sent back down to the Rapid City Rush, Alex Gallant was suspended for two games, Justin Kirkland was called up to the Flames, and Dryden Hunt was put on waivers, cleared, and then was assigned to the Wranglers on Friday. Ivan Prosvetov is not quite healed to return to play so Arsenii Sergeev was called up and backed up Owen Say for this game. To fill the remaining gaps, David Silye and Lucas Ciona slotted in for this game.

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 – Simon Mack

Owen Say

Game at a glance

The Wranglers started with Owen Say between the pipes and on the Gulls’ end, they went with Calle Clang. It was mostly Wranglers for the opening few minutes. The second and third lines had a really good cycle in the offensive zone with Parker Bell getting the best first look on Clang. Then at 6:16, Andrew Basha found Lucas Ciona in the slot and passed the puck up to him to make it a 1-0 game. Nick Cicek picked up the secondary assist.

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There was some pushback from the Gulls after this goal but the Wranglers continued to push back into the zone. 11 minutes into the frame, Andrew Basha was called for high sticking. On the next faceoff, Matthew Phillips took a quick shot and scored. The former Wrangler found the back of the net three seconds into the visiting power play.

A few minutes later, Sam Morton had his second good look of the period after Calgary managed to strip the Gulls of the puck in the offensive zone. Morton was denied again and play continued. A few minutes later, Rory Kerins was called for holding and the Gulls got about 30 seconds of a delayed penalty call to set something up. The last shot rang off the post before Calgary got possession again to officially start penalty killing. They killed this off and at 15:55, the Wranglers got their first power play of the game. They got a couple of shots on this opportunity and the period finished up with San Diego and Calgary tied 1-1. Shots through the first were 15-10 Gulls.

The second period played out with minimal whistles and runs of shots going either way. The best look the Gulls had came about 11 minutes into the period but Say denied them on a partial breakaway. At 11:25, Matthew Phillips crashed the net alongside Simon Mack and redirected the puck into the back of the net for his second goal of the night. 30 seconds after this goal, Clark Bishop set up Parker Bell for his first goal of the season. Something you could tell he was eager to get out of the way and his goal celebration especially showed it. Carter King picked up the secondary assist.

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35 seconds after Bell’s marker, Rory Kerins was on the doorstep to tap in a shot from Daniil Miromanov to make it a 3-2 game for the home team. Martin Frk also picked up the secondary assist for this goal.

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At 13:22, the Wranglers were called for too many men and Martin Frk served the bench minor. Say stood on his head, keeping eight opposing shots out of his net and was the biggest penalty killer on the ice to contribute to the success. At 15:34, Frk took the puck the other way on a breakaway but was denied by Clang. At 19:25, Parker Bell was called for hooking and the Wranglers ended the period penalty killing. At the end of 40 minutes, Calgary was up 3-2. Shots in the middle frame were 19-9 for San Diego.

In the third period, San Diego was pushing to even this game up to finish up the Bell penalty and beyond. Then at 6:11 Nathan Gaucher was called for tripping. The Wranglers power play came and went, then Martin Frk was called for hooking. At 10:04, Jan Mysak scored a power play goal off a one-timer and made it a 3-3 game. Owen Say was already up to over 40 shots faced by this point in the game. At 15:32, Yegor Sidorov was called for high-sticking. The Wranglers used this opportunity to take their timeout to try and strategize a way to get the lead back.

Lucas Ciona was called for slashing late in the power play and the Gulls used this delayed call to expire their penalty, pull their goalie and take a few extra seconds on the advantage. The Wranglers touched the puck and the Gulls took their timeout. Ciona’s penalty started with 2:03 to go in regulation. With 51 seconds remaining in Ciona’s penalty, the Gulls were called for tripping and they played the most of the remaining time of the third period on a four-on-four. 60 minutes finished without a decision and shots in the third were 12-9 San Diego.

For overtime, the Wranglers started the extra frame with 1:06 of power play time remaining. Daniil Miromanov had the best look of this man advantage but his shot went wide. After this power play was up, Turner Ottenbreit was called for tripping 2:07 into overtime. On the next faceoff, Clark Bishop’s stick broke and he played a stretch of time shorthanded and stickless. Thankfully, Owen Say made a stop that knocked his helmet off and stopped play for Bishop to go to the bench and get a new stick.

With just 28 seconds to go in overtime, the Gulls scored the game winning goal off a shot from Tristan Luneau. Say’s opposing shot count finished at 50, with him stopping 46 of them. The Wranglers finished with 28 shots. The only Wrangler on the three stars was Parker Bell, earning the third star of the night.

Head coach Brett Sutter talked about his former teammate’s success in this game, Matthew Phillips, saying:

“I think he was the best player on the ice to be quite honest. I think the D-men had a tough time with him down low. He was making plays on the power play, he was making plays in the slot all night. Something we’ll have to adjust to but no surprise. Seen it for a couple of years while he was here and he’s a heck of a player.”

Scoring stat summary

Rory Kerins – 1G

Lucas Ciona – 1G

Clark Bishop – 1A

Parker Bell – 1G

Miromanov – 1A

Martin Frk – 1A

Nick Cicek – 1A

Carter King – 1A

Andrew Basha – 1A

Highlights

Next up

The Wranglers get a day break between games then they play the second half of this San Diego series on Sunday for their annual Winter Wranglerfest game. When the Wranglers score their first goal of the game, there will be thousands of giveaways thrown into the crowd. If there are no goals by the end of the second period, the toss will commence then. This game starts at 2:00 p.m. MT.

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