The Calgary Wranglers had a successful Saturday against the Ontario Reign where they picked up a 3-1 win to start the weekend. The second half of their series was on Wednesday afternoon and while they stuck with their opponents, they couldn’t pull off the weekend sweep. Rory Kerins and Sam Honzek each had a goal in this game but narrowly fell 3-2.

Wranglers lines

Rory Kerins – Sam Morton – Ty Tullio
William Stromgren – Sam Honzek – Martin Frk
Lucas Ciona – Clark Bishop – Parker Bell 
Brett Davis – Carter Wilkie
Ilya Solovyov – Jonathan Aspirot
Yan Kuznetsov – Hunter Brzustewicz 
Jeremie Poirier – Artem Grushnikov 
Joni Jurmo 
Devin Cooley

Game at a glance

Despite it being a back to back, both teams opted to start the same netminders from their Saturday afternoon game. It was Phoenix Copley versus Devin Cooley for their season series closer. On Saturday, it was the Wranglers who got off to a good start in this game, but it was the Reign who got things going early. 
Martin Chromiak opened up the scoring at 3:46 with a shot off the far post and in. His goal came unassisted. The Wranglers got some puck possession back to try and generate an equalizing marker. Their best chance came at 17:01 when the Reign were called for the first penalty of the game. 
Early in this power play, Lucas Ciona deflected a puck in off a shot from Jeremie Poirier. The goal horn rang and the players celebrated but once the officials huddled, the celebration dialled down. The officials ruled it no goal as it was played with a high stick.
Calgary went back to their remaining time in the power play and Ty Tullio had the best look on the doorstep just after the power play expired. By the end of the first, the Wranglers were trailing the Reign 1-0 but outshooting them 12-6. 
The shot action slowed down in the second period. This was due to some penalty interruptions back and forth. At 14:11, some rough stuff behind the Wranglers’ net caused offsetting minors calls against Reilly Walsh and Carter Wilkie. 
Just over a minute into this four on four, the Reign were called for tripping. 29 seconds later, Jeremie Poirier passed the puck up to Martin Frk, who took a shot that Rory Kerins deflected in. 
Before this goal could be announced, the Reign answered back. Just 20 seconds after Kerins’ marker, Shawn Element buried a rebound that popped out in front. Before the period came to an end, Hunter Brzustewicz was called for slashing and they had to activate their penalty kill once again. The second period finished up with the Wranglers behind 2-1 and were outshot 11-4. 
The third period had 32 seconds of Brzustewicz’s penalty to kill off and the Wranglers succeeded in getting that off the board. Just 1:16 into the third, Sam Honzek won the defensive zone faceoff and hustled his way up to the other end of the ice to finish the play with a stunning top shelf goal. Martin Frk and William Stromgren picked up the assists. 
The Reign started getting some momentum going as time went on in the third period and ended up scoring again to retake the lead. Their goal came at 13:57 from Martin Chromiak again. A giveaway in the Wranglers’ zone earned Ontario a couple of shots and on Chromiak’s the puck slid past Cooley and over the line.
The Wranglers had a few final looks in the last three minutes of the game and pulled Cooley for the extra attacker at 17:58. By the end of regulation, this game was decided a 3-2 victory for the Reign. Martin Frk was the only Wrangler on the three stars as the third star of the game for his two primary assist outing. The shots finished 29-23 for Ontario.

Scoring stat summary

Rory Kerins – 1G
Sam Honzek – 1G
Martin Frk – 2A
Jeremie Poirier – 1A
William Stromgren – 1A

Highlights

Next up

The Wranglers face another playoff-bound Pacific Division team in their next series with just four games remaining. Calgary went into Sunday with a magic number of three and are right in the mix for post-season qualification. They’ll go on their last regular season road series over in Abbotsford to face the Canucks. They play a back to back on Friday and Saturday with both games starting at 8:00 p.m. MT. 
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