The Calgary Wranglers hosted one last home game on Saturday for a Blasty’s birthday/fan appreciation themed game. The crowd of over 5,700 showed up to lay eyes on the 2025-26 Wranglers for one more live look at the ‘Dome before the off-season. The team was disappointed they couldn’t show the fans more than they did and ended up falling 4-0 to the Abbotsford Canucks.

Lineup notes

The Wranglers provided an injury update for this game. Artem Grushnikov and Ivan Prosvetov’s updates remained the same. Grushnikov with an upper body injury and Prosveotov with a lower body injury. Parker Bell missed Friday’s game and was listed on Saturday with an illness. Lucas Ciona was in Friday’s game but was added to the injury report on Saturday with an upper body injury. Ciona coming out brought Alex Gallant into the lineup and on the back end, Turner Ottenbreit came out for this game and Xavier Bernard came back in.

Wranglers lines

Dryden Hunt – Rory Kerins – Brennan Othmann

Clark Bishop – Justin Kirkland – Martin Frk

William Stromgren – Sam Morton – David Silye

Alex Gallant – Carter King – Carter Wilkie

Xavier Bernard – Gavin White

Nick Cicek – Daniil Miromanov

Etienne Morin – Kyle Walker

Connor Murphy

Game at a glance

The Wranglers switched things up in net for this game with Connor Murphy getting his sixth start of the season in the AHL. The Canucks went with their same netminder, Ty Young. The momentum was pretty tilted in Abbotsford’s favour to start this game and they put up the first goal at 3:51. Riley Patterson scored off a far glove side shot.

For about a five minute stretch, neither team could register any shots and at 9:22, the first penalty of the game went against Brennan Othmann for delay of the game. 11 seconds into this Abbotsford power play, Arshdeep Bains scored off a rebound. There was limited action after this goal and at the end of the first period, the Wranglers were down 2-0 and doubled up 8-4 in shots.

The Wranglers matched their shot totals from the first period in the opening five minutes or so and were making a bit more room for themselves in the zone. In the second half of the period, the shot action was limited until the last couple of minutes of the Frame. The Wranglers showed signs of life with a one-timer attempt from Daniil Miromanov, followed up with a Martin Frk slap shot off the draw less than a minute later. The second period finished the same way as the first, with the Wranglers down 2-0. Shots in the middle frame were 10-5 Calgary.

The Wranglers tried to get something going in the third. One of the best looks of the game came from Sam Morton at 2:13 off the rush. He was denied by Young. A few minutes later, Dino Kambeitz scored the Canucks’ third goal of the game with a shot banked off the back of Murphy. This goal came at 5:15.

The next good chance for the Wranglers came from Dryden Hunt at 7:45 off a backhand shot he just lost control of. At 13:24, Dryden Hunt got a high stick to the face from Arshdeep Bains and it drew a double minor.

At 16:09, the Wranglers pulled Connor Murphy to take advantage of a six on four during the extended power play. At 16:39, Martin Frk got another heavy shot off during the power play but Young stopped him yet again. The double minor expired and Frk’s shot ended up being the only one registered on that power play chance.

At 18:29, Murphy returned in net for a face-off and centre ice and went back off five seconds later. Rory Kerins had an opportunity at 18:56 off a feed from Dryden Hunt but couldn’t get this one past Young either. At 19:43, the Canucks sealed this game with an empty net goal from Bennett Schimek. Kerins smashed his stick against the post in frustration after the puck crossed the line.

The game finished with a 4-0 final score for Abbotsford. Calgary finished with a 24-20 edge in shots. Despite this disappointing night, the Wranglers still made sure to stay out on the ice and salute their fans for their last home game of the year. After the game, Etienne Morin spoke to the media and talked about how, regardless of the result, that had always been the plan. He said:

“We spoke about it before the game ended. We just said no one in the dressing room, we’ll just go outside. It’s the least we can do for our fans for how they show up.”

Highlights

Next up

This game wrapped up the Wranglers’ home action for the 2025-26 season. They’ll play their last road series next weekend against the Colorado Eagles before they put a bow on their year. Their next game will be Friday, Apr. 17, with a 7:05 p.m. MT puck drop.

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