After a day between games, the Calgary Wranglers and Tucson Roadrunners were back in action on Sunday afternoon to wrap up their two game series. This game came as Calgary’s sixth game in nine days since the holiday break, and this stretch was a marathon with some difficult opponents. The Roadrunners got out to a two goal lead in the first. Tucson added another in the third period and put one in the empty net to secure the win. Calgary was shutout by a final score of 4-0.

Lineup notes

Matvei Gridin made his return to the lineup for this game after missing the last four games with a minor upper body injury. Carter Wilkie came out of the lineup up front as a result. On the back end, Jeremie Poirier was scratched and Simon Mack came in. This altered the pairings and each blueliner ended up skating with a new partner.

Wranglers lines

William Stromgren – Rory Kerins – Dryden Hunt

Matvei Gridin – Clark Bishop – Martin Frk

Carter King – Sam Morton – Parker Bell

Alex Gallant – David Silye – Lucas Ciona

Turner Ottenbreit – Daniil Miromanov

Nick Cicek – Artem Grushnikov

Simon Mack – Etienne Morin

Arsenii Sergeev

Game at a glance

After giving Owen Say back to back starts, the Wranglers went with Arsenii Sergeev for this game. On the other end of the ice, the Roadrunners also switched things up in net with Jaxson Stauber getting the start. 90 seconds into the game, former Wrangler Ty Tullio took a delay of game penalty and the Wranglers got some early power play action.

After this man-advantage, the Roadrunners started to get going some more and scored the first goal of the game at 6:11. This play started with a shot from the point and the scramble in front allowed Ryan McGregor to score in front. A few minutes later, Etienne Morin was called for tripping at 10:48 and this penalty lasted all of four seconds before Cameron Hebig took a high-sticking penalty. The Roadrunners led the effort on the four on four but the score remained.

The Wranglers managed a few looks on Stauber in the second half of the period but Ty Tullio was left in front of Sergeev wide open to bury a rebound on the doorstep. Juuso Valimaki picked up one of the assists on this marker. Calgary made an effort to get things going the other way with a fury of shots towards the end of the period. Right at the buzzer to signal the end of the first, there was a scrum behind the net and out of this, Lucas Ciona was called for roughing. A call that carried into the second period. At the end of 20 minutes, the Wranglers were behind 2-0 and shots were 12-8 for the Utah Mammoth affiliate.

Calgary killed off Ciona’s penalty and ended up on a power play chance of their own when the Roadrunners were called for tripping at 4:10. The Wranglers put out five forwards for this power play and Rory Kerins and Sam Morton had the best chances on this opportunity. The high danger chances were not as prevalent for the 10 minutes following the Wranglers power play and there were a couple of instances where a shot from either side came a little after a whistle so it was drawing a crowd between the captains and again later in the period on the other end of the ice. Nothing to cause a penalty, however. Just some exchanging of words.

At 18:17, Artem Grushnikov put up a hit on Miko Matikka between the benches and it appeared to have injured Matikka. Maveric Lamoureux went after Grushnikov after this hit and it resulted in roughing minors against Lamoureux and Grushnikov. Artem Grushnikov was also called for an additional penalty for interference that Martin Frk served. At the end of the second period, the score remained 2-0 and the Wranglers were out-shot 9-6 in the middle frame.

The third period still had 17 seconds of Grushnikov’s penalty remaining, so he and Frk started the frame in the box. The Roadrunners came out shooting in the first few minutes of the third and at 3:05, Cameron Hebig took the legs out from underneath Clark Bishop and Bishop went back first into the boards. The Wranglers Captain was slow to get up and was helped off the ice by the athletic trainer. He didn’t go down the tunnel and remained on the bench. He just didn’t go out for a power play shift as Hebig was called for interference.

After the power play, Daniil Miromanov took a shot that was blocked and caused a breakaway for Owen Allard the other way that Sergeev managed to keep out. At 12:24, the Roadrunners extended their lead to 3-0 when Maveric Lamoureux took a shot that was screened pretty heavily in front. At 15:49, the Wranglers pulled Arsenii Sergeev for the extra attacker. At this point in the game, it felt more like a move to give Rory Kerins a chance to break the team record for points in 10 straight games. A point in this game would make Kerins the new record holder behind Jakob Pelletier and Matthew Phillips.

Kerins had a couple of setups for William Stromgren and Martin Frk, but they could not find the back of the net. At 17:20, the Roadrunners took the puck the other way and Sammy Walker scored on the empty net to make it 4-0. After this empty netter, the Wranglers accepted their fate and played out the remaining time. Rory Kerins wasn’t out on the ice much anymore, and he also accepted his run of points in 10 straight games also came to an end. The final score was 4-0 and shots finished 32-21 for the Roadrunners.

Highlights

Next up

The Wranglers’ brutal stretch has finished up and they’ll have a much lighter schedule for the rest of January. They won’t be back in game action until Saturday when they go on the road to play the Abbotsford Canucks. Their next game will be on Jan. 10 at 8:00 p.m. MT.

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