logo
FlamesNation has no direct affiliation to the Calgary Flames, Calgary Sports and Entertainment, NHL, or NHLPA
Recap: Wranglers shutout for the first time this season in holiday send off game
alt
Photo credit: David Moll/Calgary Wranglers
Paige Siewert
Dec 23, 2024, 10:00 ESTUpdated: Dec 22, 2024, 21:03 EST
Comments
The Calgary Wranglers hosted their first annual Winter Wranglerfest game on Sunday to close out their home series against the Henderson Silver Knights. This was their largest home crowd of the season with 7,563 fans recorded for the official attendance and actually broke their team regular season attendance record since their inaugural season. Even with the promise of gifts for the fans with a goal from the home team, they were unable to score in this one.
The Wranglers were shut out for the first time this season and fell 3-0 to the Vegas Golden Knights affiliate.

Wranglers lines

William Stromgren – Rory Kerins – Dryden Hunt
Sam Honzek – Clark Bishop – Martin Frk
Lucas Ciona – Sam Morton – Adam Klapka
Parker Bell – David Silye – Alex Gallant 
Joni Jurmo – Ilya Solovyov
Yan Kuznetsov – Hunter Brzustewicz
Artem Grushnikov – Jeremie Poirier
Devin Cooley 
Waltteri Ignatjew (Backup)

Game at a glance

Devin Cooley got the start again for the Wranglers and the Silver Knights switched things up between the pipes with Carl Lindbom getting the nod. The theme of this game was a reverse “teddy bear toss.” This meant when the Wranglers score their first goal, players would throw gifts to the fans from the ice and the staff would drop gifts from parachutes from the press box. 
Calgary came out with a type of energy that they might be the first to light the lamp. They had a few good rushes and Ilya Solovyov put up a big block in front of Cooley to likely prevent a goal. However, it was still Henderson who would open the scoring. 
Raphael Lavoie, who had two goals against the Wranglers in their last meeting, went for his third in two games and it snuck five hole on Cooley. Matyas Sapovaliv was there on the doorstep to give the puck a push over the line and score at 8:24. Robert Hagg also assisted. 
Less than a minute after this goal, Adam Klapka and Mason Geertsen dropped the gloves behind the play near center ice and took a seat in the box for this.
There was quite a bit of back and forth action after this fight and the Wranglers got some good looks on their first power play of the game at 15:15. Ilya Solovyov, Adam Klapka and William Stromgren had some of the best chances of the period. Towards the end of the opening frame, there was some pushing and shoving behind the Silver Knights’ net and out of that, David Silye and Kai Uchacz fought with 0.2 seconds to go in the period. 
Adam Klapka got tagged for goaltender interference on this play and once the next faceoff was taken, the period came to a close. The shots were 18-16 Calgary in the first and the Wranglers were down 1-0 going into the first intermission. 
In the second period, the home team continued to push for an equalizing goal and could not get anything past Lindbom’s large stature. They had a couple of power plays to try and get some opportunities and even a five on three for 50 seconds around the midway mark of the period. 
The second period finished up and the Wranglers remained down 1-0. They still had a good share of shots with 34 to Henderson’s 28. Before going to the locker room, the players helped distribute gifts to their fans. 
The third started with a bit of a slower pace and at 6:14, Joni Jurmo was called for slashing. Just 25 seconds into this Henderson power play, Raphael Lavoie scored for the third time in two games against Calgary and put the Silver Knights up 2-0. This goal came at 7:21 and was assisted by Mitch McLain and Braeden Bowman. 
Jurmo was back in the box at 11:55 for tripping. Calgary was able to kill off this penalty and needed to activate some scoring in the last five minutes of regulation to try and get back in this game. They pulled Devin Cooley for the extra attacker with just over three minutes to go in regulation. 
They were only able to get one more shot on Lindbom and right at the buzzer, the Silver Knights scored an empty netter. Braeden Bowman was the goal scorer. The Wranglers fell 3-0 and the shots finished 42-38 for Calgary.
After the game, the team announced that Trent Cull will be up with the Flames as interim assistant coach so this will be his last game with the team for the time being. Assistant coach Joe Cirella will be taking the interim head coach role for the Wranglers on a go forward basis.  

Highlights

Next up

The Wranglers go into a Christmas break now for about a week, and then they’ll return to home ice on Monday, Dec. 30 at 6:00 p.m. MT. Their next opponent with be the Abbotsford Canucks for a two game series to end 2024 and start 2025.

News

Breaking News