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Recap: Wranglers fall in third straight in 7-2 decision against the Eagles
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Photo credit: Angela Burger/Calgary Wranglers
Paige Siewert
Jan 12, 2025, 12:00 ESTUpdated: Jan 12, 2025, 03:02 EST
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The Calgary Wranglers weren’t their best on Friday night and started their road series against the Colorado Eagles with a 5-2 loss. On Saturday, they had better control of the opening period of the game but that control slipped away about halfway through. The Eagles took off in scoring in the back half of the game and finished their Saturday night showdown with a 7-2 victory for the home team in front of a sellout crowd.

Lineup notes

The team announced Saturday morning that they recalled goaltender Connor Murphy from the Rapid City Rush. Murphy was on the bench for this game backing up Waltteri Ignatjew. It’s unclear what Devin Cooley’s status is at this time. He left Friday’s game after the second period and was replaced by Ignatjew for the third period, but the team hasn’t announced any injury or illness for Cooley as of yet. We’ll see what emerges in the coming days.

Game at a glance

With no Devin Cooley available for this game, Waltteri Ignatjew started for Calgary and the Eagles switched things up in net to to start Kevin Mandolese. The Wranglers came out looking a bit sharper than the evening before and the top line got things going on the scoreboard early. 
Martin Frk opened the scoring at 1:51 when Clark Bishop picked off a turnover by the Eagles and set up Frk for the one-timer. Their linemate, Dryden Hunt also got in on this scoring and picked up the secondary assist. 
This early lead only lasted a few minutes when who other than Matthew Phillips scored the equalizer at 6:54. He drove the zone and came around the net for a wraparound goal past the Wranglers netminder. This goal was unassisted. 
Later in the period, the special teams were activated but didn’t create any scoring differentials. Calgary had some of their best chances in the last couple of minutes of the period but the game remained an even 1-1 game by the end of 20 minutes. Shots through the first were 13-11 for Colorado. 
In the second period, the Wranglers were penalty killing early when Parker Bell was called for holding at 1:32. This penalty call cost them when their opponents scored the go-ahead goal. Jason Polin registered the goal on the power play off a breakaway, and he beat Iganatjew cleanly on this chance. This goal came at 2:41 and was assisted by Jacob MacDonald and Kevin Mandolese. 
At 7:31, the Wranglers evened up the scoring once again with a goal from Dryden Hunt. Sam Honzek made a nifty backwards between the legs pass up to Hunt and he jammed the puck in. Alex Gallant also assisted. The Eagles were not happy about this one and there were a lot of bodies in front of the net and players being pushed around. The conversation about goaltender interference came up but this goal stood. The Wranglers may have gotten away with one with this scenario. 
This goal ended up being a turning point in this game and really ignited some frustration in the Colorado Avalanche affiliate. A few minutes later, Martin Frk put himself and his team in a tough position when his line erupted and Frk was tagged for cross checking and unsportsmanlike conduct for 10 minutes. Dryden Hunt was also called for roughing on this play and he and William Stromgren (serving Frk’s minor penalty) joined each other in the box, putting the Eagles on a full two minute five on three. 
It was a confusing sequence of events. Dryden Hunt got that box score call for roughing but was just a body in the zone without a stick as he passed it off to a teammate. The arm was up on a delayed penalty call but Frk’s cross check did not come until after the whistle when he pulled Chris Wagner down to the ice from his neck. Right at the end of the play, Jarred Tinordi also pushed an opponent down to the ice. Tinordi was also initially sent to the box but taken out once the officials and captains chatted about the play. It seems a call was missed there. There wasn’t much evidence within a viewable frame of the game stream to understand Dryden Hunt’s penalty call fully. 
This messy play did have some ramifications. It firstly took out one of the top line wingers out of the game for the rest of the period and into the first few minutes of the third. Then the Eagles used this opportunity to score on the power play at 12:52. After an extended amount of cycling in the offensive zone, Jacob MacDonald scored off a one-timer set up by Matthew Phillips.
The penalty kill continued for Calgary as they were just down to four skaters but Colorado still capitalized again with another power play goal at 13:08 that Ignatjew initially got some of his pad on but it slipped through his legs. Jacob MacDonald also scored this power play goal just 16 seconds after his last one showing why he will be representing Colorado at the All-Star game next month. This put the Eagles up 4-2 quickly.
That score stayed for the rest of the frame and Calgary wasn’t able to make up some ground in goals. After 40 minutes, the Eagles lead 4-2 in goals and 17-14 in shots through the second period. 
Calgary had a bit of jump again in the early minutes of the third period when they were on a power play. They had a couple of looks but nothing to add a tally to their side. Offsetting minors at 2:09 put these two on a four on four then the penalty kill shortly after when Yan Kuznetsov was called for cross checking.
To avoid mistakes of their previous period, the Wranglers tried to calm things down and did succeed in killing off this penalty. At this point, the Eagles had already scored on three power plays. Sam Morton had one of the best looks of the opening minutes but could not get the puck through.
The Eagles scored the next goal at 13:37 when Oskar Olausson took a shot off the faceoff win and scored on Ignatjew. Jayson Megna assisted on this marker. Calgary had an extended power play when Jacob MacDonald was called for a boarding and they waited until 16:18 to pull Ignatjew for the extra attacker. They only registered a couple of shots during this opportunity.
The Eagles added to their lead at 18:57 with a shorthanded goal from Chris Wagner into the empty net. They scored another empty netter at 19:28 with a marker from Jason Polin. That about wrapped up the game and the Wranglers fell 7-2 in their third straight loss. Shots finished 40-35 for Colorado.

Scoring stat summary

Dryden Hunt – 1G, 1A
Clark Bishop – 1A
Alex Gallant – 1A
Martin Frk – 1G
Sam Honzek – 1A

Next up

After this brief two game road trip, the Wranglers return home this week for a midweek series against the Tucson Roadrunners. They’ll play on Tuesday and Wednesday and both games have a 7:00 p.m. MT start time.

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