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Recap: Wranglers hold control of Firebirds for the majority of their home opener but fall in overtime
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Photo credit: David Moll/Calgary Wranglers
Paige Siewert
Oct 25, 2025, 14:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 25, 2025, 12:05 EDT
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The Calgary Wranglers got fired up for their home opener on Friday night, which unfortunately conflicted with one exciting Toronto Blue Jays World Series game. The crowd was limited for this game, with a reported attendance of 3,638, but the AHL squad still put on quite the show for the first game of the season in front of their fans. With control of the game and a lead for the majority of it, unfortunately things slipped in the end and Calgary fell 5-4 in overtime. 

Lineup notes

With Dryden Hunt’s call-up, Calgary was down their top liner. In return, they did get Daniil Miromanov after he was put on waivers for the purpose of AHL assignment and cleared. Hunt out of the lineup gives one more spot for some of the regular forwards that have been switching out in these two game sets. 

Wranglers lines

William Stromgren – Rory Kerins – Matvei Gridin 
Martin Frk – Sam Morton – Andrew Basha
Aydar Suniev – Clark Bishop – Carter King
Alex Gallant – David Silye – Lucas Ciona
Artem Grushnikov – Daniil MIromanov
Nick Cicek – Hunter Brzustewicz
Yan Kuznetsov – Jeremie Poirier
Owen Say
Ivan Prosvetov 

Game at a glance

Owen Say got the start for Calgary for his second start in a row. On the other end of the ice, Nikke Kokko was between the pipes for Coachella Valley. The Wranglers had a very energetic start for this first game at home and after getting the first few looks, go the first power play chance just 2:54 in. 
This helped drive some other chances on goal and at 6:25, Wranglers Captain, Clark Bishop scored his first of the season off a set up from Andrew Basha and Nick Cicek.
Just about a minute and a half later, Rory Kerins was sprung on a breakaway and scored off a well placed bar down shot. Matvei Gridin and William Stromgren assisted on this second goal of the game.
After these two early goals, the Firebirds took a timeout and took a little pressure off. The Wranglers were called for their first penalty at 10:08 then in the dying seconds of the power play, Jakov Novak buried a rebound at 11:55 to put the Firebirds within one. 
The Firebirds were buzzing after that goal but the Wranglers managed to reel it back and even things out once again. There wasn’t any additional scoring for the rest of the period and Calgary held a 2-1 lead after one complete period. Shots after the first were 15-11 Calgary. 
In the second, the Firebirds made a goaltending switch, putting Victor Ostman in and the Wranglers continued to push the offensive zone and looked to put some space between them and their division rivals.
It continued to be the home team getting the majority of the chances and by the midway mark, they pulled ahead by another goal. Matvei Gridin scored his third goal in as many games with a set up from William Stromgren and Rory Kerins to make it a 3-1 game.
Later in the period, Artem Grushnikov took an interference penalty and Jacob Melanson was called for tripping right at the end of the second. His penalty would carry over to start the third. After two complete periods, the Wranglers led 3-1 and outshot Coachella Valley in the middle frame 16-6. 
After the Wranglers power play came and went in the beginning of the third, the Firebirds managed to put another goal up on the board with Jagger Firkus on his own on a two on one and opted for a quick release shot that beat Say at 2:58.
The Wranglers took a penalty shortly after but this one went their way with captain Clark Bishop scoring the team’s first shorthanded goal of the season. David Silye picked up the lone assist. 
On that same Firebirds power play about a minute later, Logan Morrison scored on the power play to put Coachella Valley back within one. At 16:29, Ian McKinnon and Lucas Ciona exchanged a few hits that then turned into a fight.
In the dying minutes, the Firebirds pulled Ostman at 17:24 and four seconds later, Jagger FIrkus picked the top corner and scored again to tie this game up. Regulation came to an end without a decision so the Wranglers went to overtime for their third game in a row. 
Rory Kerins, Clark Bishop and Daniil Miromanov were the first three on the ice and Miromanov got the only Wranglers look in overtime. 
10 seconds after this chance, Jacob Melanson scored the game winning goal off a breakaway that he finished off with a backhand flip. The Wranglers delayed clearing the bench and Clark Bishop was talking to the officials but then they accepted their fate. However, Alex Gallant ended up with an abuse of officials call that was not announced at the game or shown on the broadcast.
The final score was 5-4 Firebirds and shots finished 37-26 Calgary. When Head Coach Brett Sutter reflected on the game he said,
“I thought we played 50 good minutes. I think just a couple of mistakes that can’t happen at crucial times, a little puck management. We’ll get better from it, we’ll learn from it. It’s early in the year. I think we did some really good things. Things we can carry into tomorrow but at the end of the day we need the two points.”

Scoring stat summary

Rory Kerins – 1G, 1A
William Stromgren – 2A
Matvei Gridin – 1G, 1A
Clark Bishop – 2G
David Silye – 1A
Nick Cicek – 1A
Andrew Basha – 1A

Highlights

Next up

The rematch between these two will be Saturday night with an hour earlier start time. Puck drop goes at 6:00 p.m. MT.

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