logo
FlamesNation has no direct affiliation to the Calgary Flames, Calgary Sports and Entertainment, NHL, or NHLPA
Recap: Wranglers earn three of a possible four points in Laval series
alt
Photo credit: David Moll/Calgary Wranglers
Paige Siewert
Apr 5, 2026, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 5, 2026, 02:33 EDT
Comments
Coming off the back of a 5-2 win on Good Friday, the Calgary Wranglers were looking to keep up this momentum against the powerhouse Laval Rocket. Laval scored the first two of the game then Rory Kerins scored on the power play for his fourth goal in three games. Martin Frk found a goal on the power play in the third period to even things up then. Laval pulled ahead with a power play goal of their own in the third period. Calgary was doing a lot of penalty killing in the last 20 minutes of play but Martin Frk scored again on the power play to force overtime. This game would need a shootout decision where the Rocket scored on two of their attempts and picked up a 4-3 win.

Lineup notes

Parker Bell was added to the injury list for an upper body injury, so he was not in this game. Calgary opted to go with an extra defenceman instead. Carter King and Turner Ottenbreit came out of the lineup, and coming in were Alex Gallant, Simon Mack and Kyle Walker for his Wranglers debut. 

Wranglers lines

Rory Kerins – Justin Kirkland – William Stromgren 
Dryden Hunt – Sam Morton – Martin Frk 
Lucas Ciona – Clark Bishop – Carter Wilkie
Alex Gallant – David Silye
Nick Cicek – Gavin White
Xavier Bernard – Daniil Miromanov 
Etienne Morin – Kyle Walker 
Simon Mack 
Arsenii Sergeev  

Game at a glance

The starting goalies for this game were the same as Friday with Arsenii Sergeev for Calgary and Kaapo Kahkonen for Laval. Kahkonen was pulled in the second period of their previous game, so he did not go the full 60 minutes. This game got started with a fight between Florian Xhekaj and Lucas Ciona at 1:46.
After this, the Rocket put up some of the first shots of the game and the Wranglers got a decent stretch of zone time around the seven minute mark. At 8:25, Xavier Bernard was called for a high sticking double minor and Samuel Blais was also called for diving/embellishment. Martin Frk served the other half of Bernard’s penalty and the Wranglers were penalty killing. 
At 11:23, Laval scored the first goal of the game when Marc Del Gaize took a shot from the point that Joshua Roy deflected bar down past Sergeev. Right after this goal, the Wranglers’ netminder had to be sharp as another grade-A opportunity came his way and he shut down. 
At 14:46 there was some contact with Sergeev, who was on his stomach to cover up the puck and this drew a scrum in the Wranglers’ zone. This resulted in offsetting roughing calls against Dillan Bentley and Nick Cicek. Just 12 seconds into this four on four, Xavier Bernard was called for another high sticking double minor and the Wranglers had an extended penalty kill and managed to kill it off without any damage done. At the end of the first, the Wranglers were down 1-0 and were outshot 16-4. 
Early in the second period, Florian Xhekaj scored the Rocket’s second goal of the game from a point pass he chipped in back door. This goal came at 2:01. Laval built up some momentum from this goal but the Wranglers were able to pull that momentum back with a penalty against the home team at 4:45.
After this penalty, Laval took another with a cross-checking call at 8:39 that turned into a five on three with a tripping call at 8:59. 10 seconds into this two man advantage for Calgary, Rory Kerins settled the puck and took a shot up the middle of the zone to put the Wranglers on the board. Martin Frk and Justin Kirkland picked up the assists. 
At 13:34, the Wranglers were sent to the penalty kill as Nick Cicek was called for cross-checking. After this penalty, the Rocket were called for hooking at 17:47. The Wranglers had a two second five on three at 19:45, when Laval was called for delay of game. At the end of the second period, Calgary was down 2-1 and shots were an even 9-9 in the middle frame. 
Calgary had 1:45 of carryover power play time to start the third and at 1:11, Martin Frk scored off a one-timer set up from Rory Kerins. If you’ve watched Wranglers warm-ups, they practice this together every day in the last minutes of warm up and it paid off on this goal. Dryden Hunt picked up the secondary assist for his 300th AHL point on this play.
At 5:33, Nick Cicek was called for hooking and late in this Laval power play, they scored on a one-timer point shot from Marc Del Gaizo at 7:21. It was all Laval for the minutes following this goal and the Wranglers needed to kill another penalty off at 11:33, when Martin Frk was called for interference. They killed this penalty off as well then had just over six minutes of time left in regulation to try and find the equalizer. 
The Wranglers took a timeout and pulled Sergeev for the extra attacker at 17:28. At 17:54, Laval was called for slashing and at 18:17, Martin Frk’s shot went in and out so quickly it took everyone a minute to notice it was a goal. Rory Kerins and Dryden Hunt picked up the assists on this goal to make it a 3-3 game. 
That was enough to take this game out of regulation as it was 3-3 at the end of 60 minutes and shots were 12-9 Laval in the third. In the first few moments of overtime, it was pretty back and forth and Dryden Hunt and Sam Morton had the best looks of the extra frame. At 1:59, Calgary was called for a bench minor for too many men and Martin Frk was in the box to serve this call.
With 1:19 to go in overtime, the puck scooted past Arsenii Sergeev and Nick Cicek dove into the crease to bat the puck out that was sitting on the goal line. After some review, it was confirmed to be no goal but Joshua Roy was awarded a penalty shot that Sergeev turned away. Calgary killed off the rest of the penalty and had about a minute left of even strength in overtime. 
There were no goals in overtime and these two needed a shootout to decide it. Laval shot first and Sean Farrell was denied, then Rory Kerins took the first shot for Calgary and was stopped. Laval’s second shooter, Jared Davidson, scored then Justin Kirkland was turned away too. Florian Xhekaj scored on Laval’s third attempt and ended the game. Calgary fell 4-3 in the shootout decision and shots finished 46-23 for the Rocket.

Scoring stat summary

Rory Kerins – 1G, 2A
Dryden Hunt – 2A
Justin Kirkland – 1A
Martin Frk – 2G, 1A

Next up

The Wranglers return home next week to host the Abbotsford Canucks for their last home series of the season. They play on Friday, Apr. 10 at 7:00 p.m. MT then at 6:00 p.m. MT on Saturday, Apr. 11.

PRESENTED BY VIVID SEATS

Take $20 off your first Vivid Seats order of $200+ using promo code FLAMESNATION (new customers only, $200 USD minimum before taxes & fees)

News

Breaking News