The Calgary Wranglers kicked off a three game road trip on Friday against the San Jose Barracuda. They struck first with a goal from Sam Morton, then the Barracuda got some momentum going in the second with two goals against. Things unravelled further in the third period and the Wranglers were down to four defenders by the second half of the third period. Too many power plays and chances for the Barracuda put this game way out of reach and they ended up falling 5-1.

Lineup notes

This game was the last eligible game Zayne Parekh could play in his two week conditioning stint with the Wranglers. The plan for him going forward has already been made public as Eric Francis reported earlier this week. He will head back to Calgary on his own after this game and is expected to play in one or both of the Flames’ games next week against the Toronto Maple Leafs or Edmonton Oilers.

The only lineup change for this game was Parker Bell returning to the lineup and Alex Gallant coming out.

Wranglers lines

Dryden Hunt – Sam Morton – Martin Frk

William Stromgren – Rory Kerins – Aydar Suniev

Carter King – Clark Bishop – Carter Wilkie

Lucas Ciona – David Silye – Parker Bell

Artem Grushnikov – Daniil Miromanov

Nick Cicek – Zayne Parekh

Turner Ottenbreit – Jeremie Poirier

Ivan Prosvetov

Game at a glance

The Wranglers started this road trip with Ivan Prosvetov between the pipes and San Jose went with Laurent Brossoit on their end. Early in the game, Prosvetov needed an equipment timeout to take a look at his skate blade. After this was resolved in the first minute of play, he was ready to roll. The Barracuda got most of the opening looks on Prosvetov and Calgary finally had a chance to break it up with a tripping call against the home team at 6:10.

Calgary had a few good chances on this man advantage including a shot that just went wide from Zayne Parekh and a shot from Jeremie Poirier that Brossoit caught. Calgary continued to work the zone beyond this special teams scenario and it paid off for them a few minutes later.

Around the 16 minute mark of the frame, Zayne Parekh and Sam Morton made a couple of attempts on Brossoit then cycled around the zone again and scored. Dryden Hunt got the puck up to Parekh, who took a shot from the point and Morton buried the rebound. This goal came at 16:19.

Paige Siewert

@thathockeygirly

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Zayne Parekh sets up Sam Morton for the Wranglers' first goal of the game.

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3:38 AM · Jan 31, 2026

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Just over two minutes after this goal, the Wranglers were on another power play when San Jose was called for tripping once again. Early in this power play, Parekh had another point shot that was turned away and Rory Kerins had the best look shortly after. Kerins was parked in front of the net and was shut down on a rebound chance. The Wranglers gave up two shorthanded breakaways on this power play, but thankfully Ivan Prosvetov turned them both away.

By the end of the first period, the Wranglers had a 1-0 lead and shots were an even 11-11. Calgary started the second period with 36 seconds of power play time carrying over and ended up giving up another breakaway chance for the Barracuda as time ran out on the man advantage.

A few minutes later, the Wranglers were on their first penalty kill of the game when Daniil Miromanov was called for high-sticking. Calgary killed this penalty but gave up a goal a few minutes later. At 7:14, William Stromgren had a giveaway in the Wranglers zone that ended up on the stick of Donavan Houle, who roofed a shot over Ivan Prosvetov and made it a 1-1 game.

At 10:17, the Wranglers were penalty killing again when Clark Bishop was called for slashing. About three quarters into this penalty kill, there was a delayed call against the Wranglers. Nick Cicek blocked a shot and was in discomfort in front of the net. Filip Bystedt managed a shot past Prosvetov and the Wranglers swarmed their opponents behind the net. Cicek stayed down for a few extra seconds but was able to get back up. The penalty call ended up going against Cicek for slashing.

Calgary protested this goal with a lot of traffic in front. It wasn’t super clear what they were challenging, possibly the puck staying out or contact with Prosvetov. The officials huddled and the call remained. Cicek served his penalty then went down the tunnel for a lower body evaluation. This put Zayne Parekh on a pairing with Artem Grushnikov in Cicek’s absence.

The Barracuda peppered Prosvetov with shots after this sequence and Calgary was called for yet another penalty at 17:24, when Daniil Miromanov was called for delay of game. The Wranglers managed to kill off this penalty as well with Zayne Parekh laying out on the ice and stopping a shot attempt at the trail end of the special teams scenario. This period was a messy one with Calgary giving up four penalties, two goals and 20 shots against. They put up seven shots in the middle frame and were trailing 2-1 going into the second intermission.

Early in the third period, the Wranglers finally got a power play chance back their way when Shane Powers was called for slashing. Zayne Parekh had the best look of this power play when he rang a point shot off the post. At the dying seconds of this power play, Jeremie Poirier tried a drop pass in the Wranglers’ zone and it was left there for Anthony Vincent to pick up and put past Ivan Prosvetov. This shorthanded goal came at 3:21 and put the Sharks’ affiliate up 3-1.

Nick Cicek was not back for the third period, so the Wranglers continued to adjust to five defencemen. At 5:45, Carter Wilkie was called for holding for the fifth penalty call against the Wranglers this game. At 7:12, San Jose added another goal to their lead on the power play. Cam Lund put up a shot from the top of the faceoff circle and beat Prosvetov low blocker side.

Before the dust could settle from this goal, Nolan Allan scored at 7:27 off a point shot through traffic. That quickly became a 5-1 game for the Barracuda. At 9:27, Zayne Parekh was absolutely run over by Igor Chernyshov at center ice and this turned into an eruption between these teams. Turner Ottenbreit and Braden Hache went toe to toe and were both called for a misconduct and roughing. Hache had an extra roughing call against him and this gave Calgary a power play.

With Ottenbreit’s night ending early here too and Nick Cicek unable to return, the Wranglers were stuck with four defenders for the rest of regulation. The good news was that Parekh was briefly evaluated after this hit and was able to continue playing. Calgary managed a couple of shots on this power play but this game was still feeling well out of reach at this point.

They let this game play out and the Wranglers didn’t stop trying, but there was nothing left for them to do to get back into it. Regulation came to a close and Calgary lost 5-1. Shots finished 42-23 for the Barracuda. The Wranglers fell to 0-4 on the San Jose season series and are sitting at ninth in the Pacific Division.

Scoring stat summary

Dryden Hunt – 1A

Zayne Parekh – 1A

Sam Morton – 1G

Wranglers conditioning watch

Zayne Parekh

Parekh didn’t match his two goal performance from Monday but still had a very solid outing in this game despite the final score. He registered three shots on goal, not including a couple of chances that hit the post or went wide and assisted on the Wranglers’ only goal of the night. He was all over the puck in this game and had the green light to shoot whenever the puck was on his stick. Zayne continued to quarterback the power play and it paid off on Sam Morton’s lone marker. Parekh had at least two post shots that were inches away from turning this game around.

He was laying the body out to put himself between the shooters and his netminder and anticipating opportunities from San Jose very well. You could tell his game was clicking and he was standing out for the right reasons. The brief scare of the hit against him was met with relief and he put up quite a bit of minutes in the last half of the third period. One of his post shots from the point came on the shift immediately after this hit. This two week stretch seemed to serve Parekh well and as he returns to the Flames, he should have more confidence and be better adjusted for NHL play. The Wranglers are going to miss him on the back end, especially after this game.

Next up

This series is a back to back with game two taking place on Saturday night. The game starts an hour earlier than Friday with puck drop going at 7:00 p.m. MT.

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