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Recap: Wranglers make second period comeback but fall behind again in loss to the Firebirds
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Photo credit: Brandon Magpantay/Coachella Valley Firebirds
Paige Siewert
Mar 8, 2026, 10:00 EDTUpdated: Mar 8, 2026, 23:05 EDT
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The Calgary Wranglers hit the road to face the Coachella Valley Firebirds after five days away from game action. Calgary came into this game fresh and energetic, with some bodies back from injury and some new faces as a result of the NHL trade deadline. At the midway point of this game, the Wranglers were down 3-0 but managed to get two goals back in the last two minutes of the second period. The Firebirds added another in the third and the Wranglers couldn’t come back a second time. They ended up falling 4-2.

Lineup notes

The team made an injury update before puck drop. Rory Kerins is on a week-to-week status now for his lower body injury and Martin Frk has been added to the injured list with a lower body injury as well. Frk’s status is day-to-day. Parker Bell and Lucas Ciona were taken off the injury list and Ciona played in this game. Parker Bell dressed and skated for warm-ups. Alex Gallant also made his return to the lineup for his first game since the end of January. He was out with an injury and was able to skate with the team in warmups in the last week. He skated on the fourth line with Ciona and David Silye, who was playing in his 100th AHL game.
Matvei Gridin came back to maintain his eligibility for the AHL playoffs if the Wranglers qualify. He played in this game and went the full distance. He wasn’t a one shift and done like Andrew Mangiapane was in his AHL assignment with the Bakersfield Condors earlier this week. Brennan Othmann also made it in time for this game and skated on the top line wearing number 28.

Wranglers lines

Brennan Othmann – Clark Bishop – Carter King
William Stromgren – Justin Kirkland – Aydar Suniev
Dryden Hunt – Sam Morton – Matvei Gridin
Alex Gallant – David Silye – Lucas Ciona
Turner Ottenbreit – Daniil Miromanov
Nick Cicek – Hunter Brzustewicz
Artem Grushnikov – Gavin White

Arsenii Sergeev

Game at a glance

Arsenii Sergeev got his third straight start in this game. On the other end, Nikke Kokko got the start for the Firebirds. The Wranglers started this game with a lot of energy and Brennan Othmann made his presence known early in more ways than one. He put up a good hit behind the Firebirds’ net and registered the first shot on goal. Calgary’s early jump was slowed down by a penalty call at 3:10 against Alex Gallant for roughing. He was met with a crowd of boo’s on his way to the box. 
A minute into this penalty kill, Dryden Hunt tripped up Kokko and was called for goaltender interference. The Wranglers had a minute long five on three to kill off and managed to keep Coachella Valley off the board over this stretch. When Gallant came out of the box he was going for the bench but the puck was cleared out for him to try a shorthanded breakaway. Kokko came out of his crease to break it up and Gallant had to stand down to avoid taking another penalty.
At 7:19, the first goal of the game was scored by Logan Morrison. Nick Cicek was a little bit behin the play and couldn’t quite catch up to Morrison in time to stop him from taking a shot on Sergeev’s far side. A couple of minutes later, Lucas Ciona was called for high sticking and during this penalty kill, Dryden Hunt went for a shorthanded chance but was poke checked by Nikke Kokko. The Wranglers killed this penalty, only allowing a single shot from the Seattle Kraken’s affiliate. The rest of the period was mostly Calgary pushing back and trying to get one past Kokko. At 16:49, they got their first power play of the game when Coachella Valley was called for holding. 
Calgary had a few good looks on this power play but couldn’t get on the board by the end of the frame. At the end of the first, the Wranglers were behind 1-0 and outshot the Firebirds 13-8. The Firebirds struck early in the second when Calgary turned the puck over in their zone. Just 56 seconds into the frame, it was a 2-0 Firebirds game with a goal from Jani Nyman.
The Wranglers had another chance on the man advantage at 3:31 when the home team was called for interference. Calgary rang a shot off the post, then Dryden Hunt went for a one-timer attempt and was turned away. The Firebirds continued to build off their momentum after this penalty kill and scored again at 8:48 with a bar down shot from Jagger Firkus. 
After this goal, the Firebirds barely had any zone time for the rest of the period. Finally, some Wranglers’ scoring chances went their way later in the frame. It started with a Lucas Ciona breakaway at 18:29, which he beat Kokko on with a quick release. Clark Bishop picked up the lone assist.
The next Wranglers shot also found the back of the net. 27 seconds later, the Wranglers set up a chance off a quick passing play. Every skater on the ice touched the puck and Dryden Hunt finished it off. The assists went to Clark Bishop and Hunter Brzustewicz.
Calgary was quickly right back into this one and at the end of the period, they were behind by just one in the 3-2 game. They nearly doubled up Coachella Valley in shots 14-8 in the middle frame. The Wranglers had a chance to even things up early with a penalty against the Firebirds just 44 seconds in. 
Sam Morton, Dryden Hunt and Hunter Brzustewicz all had chances on this man advantage but could not quite get the puck over the line. At 3:45, things flipped and Calgary was penalty killing when Brennan Othmann was called for slashing. This penalty was killed off with minimal high danger chances. The next goal came at 8:38, when Oscar Fisker Molgaard and Gustav Olofsson were on a two-on-one, only being defended by Dryden Hunt. Olofsson scored off a one-timer and made it a 4-2 game.
Shortly after this goal, Turner Ottenbreit was called for tripping and the Wranglers were back to penalty killing. Shortly after killing this off, John Hayden was called for tripping and Calgary got a power play chance of their own. This was cut short by a high sticking call from Justin Kirkland and they had 54 seconds of four-on-four. 
Both of these calls came and went then the pressure was on for Calgary to try to crawl back into this game once again. Clark Bishop had a good look late in the period but Kokko put up the poke check on him too. The Wranglers took a timeout with 2:30 to go in regulation and pulled Arsenii Sergeev for the extra attacker off the next draw.
Calgary managed two more shots before the end of regulation and ended up falling 4-2. Shots finished 41-20 for the Wranglers despite the loss. Dryden Hunt led the way in shots for the Wranglers in this game with eight and Daniil Miromanov was right behind him with seven.

Scoring stat summary

Lucas Ciona – 1G
Dryden Hunt – 1G
Clark Bishop – 2A
Hunter Brzustewicz – 1A

Next up

These two will wrap up their weekend series on Sunday. They’ll play a mid-afternoon game that has a 4:00 p.m. MT puck drop.

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