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Recap: Wranglers pick up point in energetic shootout loss against Canucks
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Photo credit: David Moll/Calgary Wranglers
Paige Siewert
Jan 11, 2026, 12:00 ESTUpdated: Jan 11, 2026, 03:03 EST
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The Calgary Wranglers kicked off their first road series of 2026 against the Abbotsford Canucks. This was the freshest the Wranglers were for quite a few weeks, as they didn’t have any midweek games this week. Their energy showed and it was a very competitive game. The Wranglers fell behind 2-0 early in the second and managed to score the next three goals to put themselves right back in it. The Canucks tied the game again and this match up needed a shootout, which Abbotsford picked up the win in. The Wranglers earned a point but fell by a final score of 4-3.

Lineup notes

Since the last time the Wranglers played, William Stromgren was called up to the Flames. This, combined with Aydar Suniev being healthy again after missing nearly a month with an upper body injury, jumbled the lines a bit. Sam Morton and Matvei Gridin got a promotion up to the top line and David Silye also moved up a line to skate with Clark Bishop and Carter King. From the last game, Lucas Ciona and Etienne Morin were scratched, and Carter Wilkie and Jeremie Poirier came in. 

Wranglers lines

Dryden Hunt – Sam Morton – Matvei Gridin
Aydar Suniev – Rory Kerins – Martin Frk 
Carter King – Clark Bishop – David Silye
Alex Gallant – Carter Wilkie – Parker Bell
Artem Grushnikov – Daniil Miromanov 
Nick Cicek – Jeremie Poirier
Turner Ottenbreit – Simon Mack
Owen Say 

Game at a glance

The Wranglers started Owen Say for this game and Arsenii Sergeev backed him up. Still no sign of Ivan Prosvetov, who remains out with a lower body injury. For the Canucks, they started Jiri Patera. The Canucks wasted no time and scored on their first shift. Jonathan Lekkerimaki cut into the corner in the Wranglers zone and shot a backhand from a sharp angle and put it past Say. This was the first shot of the game and the Canucks took an early 1-0 lead just 18 seconds in. 
At 1:58, the Wranglers were awarded the first power play of the game after the Canucks were called for cross-checking. Calgary managed their first few shots on this man advantage but could not quite even things up. Around seven and a half minutes into the period, the Wranglers gave up a breakaway as Lukas Reichel was alone in the zone. Owen Say was able to turn this one away to prevent further damage. 
After a 20 second start the Wranglers would like back, they pretty well led the charge for the first period. They nearly doubled up the Canucks in shots, though the first with a 13-7 edge but were down one by the end of the period. Early in the second period, the Canucks added to their lead with a goal from Cooper Walker 3:27 into the frame. Walker’s initial shot missed the net and deflected back in front of the net off the end boards. Say made a scramble save but may have hurt himself on this play. The positioning of his lower body was a little awkward and he may have tweaked his knee or pulled his groin. 
Say remained in the game for the time being and just over a minute after the Canucks’ second goal, Sam Morton put the Wranglers on the board. Artem Grushnikov came into the zone with quite a bit of speed and went for a behind the back pass to Matvei Gridin. Gridin corralled the puck behind the net and set up Morton for the one-timer. This goal came at 4:52.
At the next media timeout, Say took himself out of the game and Arsenii Sergeev came in at 6:26. 35 seconds later, Dryden Hunt looked for Matvei Gridin to score off the one-timer and managed to get the rebound back and score on practically an empty net as Patera was still down on the ice from the save. His goal was unassisted as the puck came back to him on a turnover.
A few minutes after this goal, the Wranglers were on a power play when Victor Mancini was called for slashing at 11:04. Jeremie Poirier registered the only shot on goal on this opportunity, then Artem Grushnikov had one of the best chances of the period shortly after. The Wranglers were penalty killing at 15:03 when Dryden Hunt was called for hooking. They managed to kill this off with no shots against then Dryden Hunt and Sam Morton were in the zone alone at 17:45 and tried a passing play for a scoring chance, but couldn’t finish it. 
At the end of the second period, the Wranglers and Canucks were tied 2-2 and shots in the middle frame were 10-6 Calgary. Early in the third, it was mostly Calgary with the chances to try and find that go-ahead goal. At 5:31, Carter King gave Calgary their first lead of the year with his third of the season. David Silye got the one-timer pass up to King and he elevated it over Patera to find the back of the net. Nick Cicek picked up the secondary assist on this goal. 
The Canucks had some pushback and at 11:13, Nils Aman tied the game again. Jonathan Lekkerimaki took a shot from the point and Aman deflected it past Sergeev. Not too much the Wranglers netminder could’ve done on that redirection. It was mostly Abbotsford pushing for the next go-ahead goal through the back half of the third with the Wranglers unable to register a shot for many minutes after this goal. At 18:27, Aydar Suniev was called for tripping and the Wranglers managed to kill off this penalty enough to force at least overtime. 
At the end of regulation, the Wranglers and Canucks were tied 3-3 and shots in the third were 11-5 for Abbotsford. In overtime, it was primarily a goaltending battle. The Wranglers killed off the remaining time of Suniev’s penalty and skated mostly four-on-four for the extra frame as there weren’t any earlier whistles. Both teams had a couple really good looks in overtime and were denied. Rory Kerins and Artem Grushnikov were the ones who almost ended the game on Calgary’s end. In the last 37 seconds of overtime, they got a whistle and played out the rest of the time on the traditional three-on-three.
Overtime didn’t bring a winner so this game went into a shootout. Jonathan Lekkerimaki shot first for the Canucks and scored. Matvei Gridin and Jeremie Poirier didn’t score on their attempts and Sergeev stopped the other attempts from Abbotsford. Aydar Suniev was the third shooter to keep it alive and scored in his first AHL shootout attempt to force at least a fourth round.
Rory Kerins and Martin Frk were stopped on the next two rounds and Vilmer Alriksson scored in the fifth round to win the game for the Canucks. The final score was 4-3 and shots finished 30-27 for Calgary.

Scoring stat summary

Dryden Hunt – 1G, 1A
Matvei Gridin – 1A
David Silye – 1A
Nick Cicek – 1A
Carter King – 1G
Sam Morton – 1G

Next up

If Owen Say is unable to at least back up Sergeev on Sunday, the Wranglers may be scrambling for a backup. Connor Murphy is the usual preferred call up from the Rapid City Rush but with it being such a quick turnaround, that may not be possible. He also played on Saturday night in the Rapid City Rush’s 4-2 win over the Indy Fuel and faced 46 shots. The back half of this back-to-back series between Abbotsford and Calgary is an earlier game and takes place on Sunday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. MT.
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