Dryden Hunt adds another goal to his career season
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Recap: Wranglers fall 5-2 in Firebirds season series closer
Photo credit: Brandon Magpantay/Coachella Valley Firebirds
Mar 26, 2026, 10:00 EDTUpdated: Mar 26, 2026, 02:30 EDT
The Calgary Wranglers played their last road game in California of the regular season with a match-up against the Coachella Valley Firebirds. The Wranglers came into this game fresh and had a great start to get going. Dryden Hunt started it off with the game opening goal about nine minutes in. The Firebirds and Wranglers traded goals in the second then Coachella Valley took the lead and ran with it. With an empty net goal, the Firebirds ended up winning 5-2.
Lineup notes
The Wranglers made an injury update before puck drop that confirmed Artem Grushnikov was out of the lineup on day to day status for his upper body injury from last game. Rory Kerins has also gone from week-to-week to day-to-day status. Logan Gordon from the Fan960 also shared an update that Kerins might be available for this weekend and is expected to return to the lineup before the end of the season.
Lucas Ciona was able to return to this game after missing the last six games with a lower body injury. David Silye came out of the lineup and Simon Mack came in to keep the 11 and seven split between the forwards and defencemen like they had in their last game.
Wranglers lines
Dryden Hunt – Sam Morton – Aydar Suniev
Brennan Othmann – Clark Bishop – Lucas Ciona
William Stromgren – Justin Kirkland
Alex Gallant – Carter King – Parker Bell
Turner Ottenbreit – Daniil Miromanov
Nick Cicek – Gavin White
Etienne Morin – Simon Mack
Chase Pauls
Arsenii Sergeev
Game at a glance
The Wranglers started Arsenii Sergeev for the fourth straight game and Nikke Kokko got the nod in net for the Firebirds. Calgary got going from puck drop and had some good chances from William Stromgren and Daniil Miromanov early. Lucas Ciona was on a breakaway and the play was whistled down before he could get a shot off because Brennan Othmann interfered with a Firebirds player back on the blue line. The Wranglers took the puck the other way early in the penalty kill then with 1:39 to go in the Wranglers penalty kill, Jani Nyman was called for interference, and it was four-on-four until Calgary’s modified power play.
The Wranglers opened the scoring during this four-on-four when Dryden Hunt was sprung on a breakaway and scored at 9:05. This was before the Wranglers power play kicked in and Daniil Miromanov and Turner Ottenbreit picked up the assists.
At 9:22, Nick Cicek was called for tripping and the overlapping penalties continued. The rest of the penalties expired without additional scoring. Later in the period, Lucas Ciona and Zach Uens collided with a knee-on-knee hit at 17:24 and they dropped the gloves. Ciona was called for kneeing, which William Stromgren served. Ciona and Uens were also dealt fighting majors.
The Firebirds ended up with the power play out of this scenario and Calgary killed it off. In the last second of the period, the Wranglers had an offensive zone draw and pulled Arsenii Sergeev to get one more skater on the ice for a quick shot. They won the draw and the shot was blocked but one of their own skaters. At the end of 20 minutes, the Wranglers were up 1-0 and shots were an even 9-9.
Just 1:54 into the second period, Jani Nyman was screening the net and buried a rebound to even up the scoring. The Wranglers got the lead back quickly when Aydar Suniev was able to set up Nick Cicek from a pass behind the net. Cicek scored on a shot from the point through traffic at 4:14. Gavin White picked up the secondary assist.
Nick Cicek gets the lead back for the Wranglers. Aydar Suniev gets the friendly headbutt for the setup
At 8:59, Eduard Sale was called for holding and the Wranglers had a chance to put some more space between them and the Firebirds. Etienne Morin has been quarterbacking the power play as of late with Daniil Miromanov coming out typically for the second unit.
At 14:30, the Firebirds answered back again with a goal from Ty Nelson. Nelson rang the shot off the crossbar and tied the game once again. In the last couple of minutes of the period, Coachella Valley had a string of chances that Sergeev turned away, but at 18:43, Eduard Sale got a shot past the Wranglers netminder to take the first lead of the night for the home team.
With just 11 seconds left in the period, Ian McKinnon started a scrum and was called for cross-checking to give Calgary a power play. This power play would carry into the third. At the end of two complete periods, the Wranglers were behind 3-2 and outshot 13-9 in the middle frame.
The Wranglers had 1:49 of carry over power play time in the third but this was cut short by a hooking call against Aydar Suniev at 1:03. Calgary was down two skaters by 1:57, when William Stromgren was called for high sticking. Coachella Valley didn’t let this chance pass them by and Logan Morrison scored post and in at 2:15.
The officials were feeling a bit whistle happy in this game with the penalty calls in this game but the next calls were no brainers. At 8:51, Turner Ottenbreit slashed Jakov Novak and he returned the favour. They took offsetting minors then the next call went against the Firebirds for hooking at 12:48. At 14:11, William Stromgren was called for an abuse of officials misconduct and his night was done.
At 17:11, the Wranglers took a timeout and pulled Arsenii Sergeev for the extra attacker. Aydar Suniev and Dryden Hunt were buzzing for a goal were the ones pulling the extra shifts on the Justin Kirkland line. Dryden Hunt especially.
The Firebirds ended up scoring an empty netter from Jani Nyman at 19:26 and Sergeev returned to the net. With just three seconds left in the game, Alex Gallant and Ian McKinnon considered one last fight for their series but didn’t go. They were dealt misconduct calls instead. The Wranglers fell 5-2 and shots finished 39-24 for Coachella Valley.
Scoring stat summary
Turner Ottenbreit – 1A
Gavin White – 1A
Dryden Hunt – 1G
Daniil Miromanov – 1A
Aydar Suniev – 1A
Nick Cicek – 1G
Next up
The Wranglers return home to host the Colorado Eagles this weekend. They’ll play a two game set on Friday and Sunday with both games having a 1:00 p.m. MT puck drop.
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