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Recap: Wranglers lose two skaters to injury and fall 4-3 to the Reign in overtime
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Photo credit: Angela Burger/Calgary Wranglers
Paige Siewert
Feb 16, 2025, 10:00 ESTUpdated: Feb 16, 2025, 02:01 EST
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The Calgary Wranglers kicked off a homestand against the Ontario Reign on Saturday afternoon for their first home game since the AHL All-Star break. Calgary lost two players to injury early in this game but kept ahead of their opponents in scoring until the third period. A marker from the Reign in the third forced overtime, where Ontario picked up a 4-3 win in the extra frame.

Lineup notes

This game was interim head coach Joe Cirella’s return to action behind the bench after missing the last two weeks recovering from a routine eye surgery. Brett Sutter took his spot back as assistant coach after filling in for Cirella in Wranglers action and in the AHL All-Star event. 
Calgary had an up-skilled lineup for this game after some Flames re-assignments for the 4 Nations break. With some extra depth, the coaching staff opted to scratch Jeremie Poirier and William Strömgren for this game in a development decision. FlamesNation’s Ryan Pike had some insight from Coach Cirella.
Cirella said:
“Yeah. You know we’re all about development here. And some nights, you know, they’ll play 20 minutes a game. And today we felt it was a development decision that they maybe watch because it’s, you know, it’s a long season. And you know, it’s a good learning curve to sometimes sit up and watch what’s going on.”
This is just the second game Strömgren has missed this season and Poirier’s first game out of the lineup this season.

Wranglers lines

Dryden Hunt – Rory Kerins – Martin Frk
Sam Honzek – Clark Bishop – Adam Klapka
Lucas Ciona – Sam Morton – David Silye
Alex Gallant – Brett Davis – Parker Bell
Yan Kuznetsov – Ilya Solovyov 
Jarred Tinordi – Hunter Brzustewicz
Artem Grushnikov – Jonathan Aspirot 
Devin Cooley

Game at a glance

Devin Cooley got the start in net for Calgary in this game and faced Erik Portillo for the Reign on the other end of the ice. Cooley got some of the early work facing the first shots of the game. Jarred Tinordi got tied up with Shawn Element after a faceoff just a couple of minutes into the game and it ended up trapping Jarred Tinordi and forcing him to hyper-extend his knee. He was helped off the ice by the training staff and did not return to the game. 
Already down a skater, the Wranglers were quickly out another when Sam Morton was taken down by a hit from Reign Captain, Joe Hicketts just under eight minutes into the game. Hicketts led with his shoulder causing an awkward fall for Morton, who fell on his back and hit his head on the ice. Morton did not return to this game either.
Martin Frk opened up the scoring just past the halfway point of the period when he took a shot from the top of the faceoff circle that Rory Kerins screened in front of the net. The lone assist on this opening marker went to Dryden Hunt. This goal came at 10:12.
At 12:28, Jonathan Aspirot went to put up a hit on Tyler Madden along the boards and Madden spun at the last second causing a boarding call against Aspirot. After Madden fell to the ice, Cole Krygier came to his teammates’ defence and fought Aspirot. The calls out of this play resulted in an instigating minor, a fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct for instigating against Krygier and for Aspirot, a boarding minor and a fighting major. 
Despite the drama in the opening period and being down two skaters, the Wranglers had a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes and outshot their opponents 6-5 in this frame. In the second period, the Wranglers were on the penalty kill early when Lucas Ciona was called for high-sticking just 2:13 into the period.
Thankfully for Calgary, they took this opportunity to turn the tables in their favour when Dryden Hunt set up David Silye for a one-timer at 3:20 that he scored through the legs of Portillo. Artem Grushnikov picked up the secondary assist on this marker.
Right after this penalty expired, the Reign answered back with a goal from Shawn Element. Element beat Cooley on a screened wrist shot at 4:28. The Reign’s first goal of the afternoon was assisted by Taylor Ward and Angus Booth.
The Wranglers took back their two goal lead just 26 seconds later when Dryden Hunt passed the puck up to Rory Kerins, who found Martin Frk in front of the net and Frk scored before Portillo could make the lateral movement to his side of the net. This goal was recorded at 4:54 for Frk’s second marker of the game.
Martin Frk put up a cross-check at 7:01 that drew a crowd of pushing and shoving. Towards the end of this penalty kill, the Reign struck again with a goal from Jack Studnicka at 8:57. 
In the back half of the period, the shots were very limited and both sides were called for a penalty that came and went. By the end of the period, the Wranglers were up 3-2 and shots were an even 8-8 in the middle frame.
Calgary had good control in the third period to protect their one goal lead. They were keeping the puck out of their own zone and put up a few more shots on Portillo to try and earn an insurance goal. Unfortunately, Jeff Malott went for a wraparound attempt and got the puck up to Charles Hudon, who scored the equalizer at 14:12.
There was no other scoring in the third and Calgary had a 6-5 edge in shots in the period. At the buzzer, they were tied up 3-3 and went into overtime. The first recorded shot in overtime from Francesco Pinelli ended up going past Cooley’s glove side and the Reign took the win just 1:29 into the extra frame. 
This play caused some frustration for the Wranglers as Ilya Solovyov was taken down behind the net along the boards just seconds before that went uncalled. They were looking for a cross-checking call they did not get. 
The Reign won 4-3 in overtime and the shots were limited with Calgary outshooting Ontario 20-19. The only Wrangler on the three stars was Martin Frk for the third star in recognition of his two goal game.

Scoring stat summary

Artem Grushnikov – 1A
Rory Kerins – 1A
Dryden Hunt – 3A
David Silye – 1G
Martin Frk – 2G

Highlights

Next up

The Wranglers and Reign will have a day between their next game and will continue this series on Family Day Monday. Calgary looks to get another point or two on this series and game two gets going at 2:30 p.m. MT.
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