What’s better than snapping an opponent’s 13 game winning streak? Winning the next night and sweeping the weekend series while earning a playoff spot along the way. The Calgary Wranglers achieved both of these things on Saturday night when they went into the day with a magic number of just one. While they were about a third of the way through their game, the Tucson Roadrunners finished up their game against the Rockford Ice Hogs. Tucson losing was one of the three possible clinching scenarios for Calgary.
With that pressure off, the Wranglers helped themselves further on the seeding side of things by beating the Canucks 3-1.

Wranglers lines

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

Game at a glance

Calgary and Abbotsford were happy with what they saw on Friday night and opted to start their same netminders for this game. Waltteri Ignatjew was back in net for the Wranglers and Arturs Silovs started in net for the Canucks. 
This game got off to an explosive start with both teams full of energy and animosity. Just 3:56 into this game, Ty Glover laid out Parker Bell near the boards when he was settling down the puck and Bell skated over to him to defend himself. It was a quick fight and each of them landed a couple of punches but the last punch on Bell was right square in the middle of his face and took him down to the ice. Lucas Ciona came to help him as the training staff took a look at Parker Bell after that sequence of events.
Bell went off to be evaluated further and both Bell and Glover were called for fighting majors. Bell didn’t return for this game and Jeremie Poirier took a few shifts at forward to fill the gap. A few minutes later, Ty Tullio put up a hit along the boards and was whistled for boarding. This gave Abbotsford their first power play of the night. 
With nine seconds to go in the power play, Tristen Nielsen appeared to score on Ignatjew and it was reviewed after the home team wrapped up their celebration. On the play, Nate Smith was in tight on Ignatjew and made contact with the Wranglers netminder. This caused Ignatjew to lose his stick and prevented him from making the save. The goal was overturned and the game remained scoreless.
The Canucks continued to push in the Wranglers’ zone after this power play and they got another chance on the man advantage at 13:26 when Martin Frk served a too many men bench minor. Calgary killed this penalty and went on their first power play of the game at 16:17. By the end of the period, the scoreboard remained unchanged for a 0-0 score. Shots ended up at 12-9 for Calgary after the opening 20 minutes. 
The first half of the second period was played out with minimal interruptions. The Wranglers got a great scoring chance in just the first minute when Clark Bishop looked to set up Martin Frk for the one timer. Silovs stopped this and play continued. The first stoppage came at 9:45 when Sammy Blais was called for tripping. Shortly after this penalty ended, Brett Davis scored the opening goal at 12:59. He took a feed from Clark Bishop and chipped it in to take the lead. Yan Kuznetsov also assisted on this marker.
The Wranglers held this narrow lead for about two and a half minutes then Chase Wouters answered back for Abbotsford. The shot from Jett Woo at the point popped off Ignatjew’s pad and Wouters was on the doorstep to tip it in. This goal came at 16:33.
A minute later, a string of penalties was dealt to Carter Wilkie and Jujhar Khaira for roughing, then Christian Wolanin for hooking and a game misconduct for abuse of officials. On this Wranglers power play, Hunter Brzustewicz scored at 19:28 on a shot through traffic to take a one goal lead for Calgary.
Right at the buzzer to end the period, Yan Kuznetsov was called for high sticking. At the end of 40 minutes, Calgary led Abbotsford 2-1 in scoring and outshot the Canucks 9-4 in the middle frame.
The Wranglers started the third killing off Kuznetsov’s penalty and had another to kill off at 7:05 when Jonathan Aspirot was called for cross-checking. This gave the Canucks most of the puck possession through the first half of the period but the Wranglers started taking back the reigns in the back half. 
At 13:43, Brett Davis scored again to secure an insurance goal for Calgary. Jonathan Aspirot took the shot from the point and Davis got just enough of his stick on it to slide it past Silovs. Carter Wilkie also assisted on this marker.
The Wranglers had to penalty kill one more time at 15:53, when Jeremie Poirier was called for tripping. The Canucks opted to go for a six on four for most of this power play by pulling Silovs at 16:26. Abbotsford was able to get a couple more shots off but no goals by the end of regulation.
The Wranglers secured a 3-1 win and outshot the Canucks 29-24. Two Calgary players were recognized in the three stars with Brett Davis getting the first star and Waltteri Ignatjew getting the second.

Scoring stat summary

Jeremie Poirier – 1A
Hunter Brzustewicz – 1G
Brett Davis – 2G
William Stromgren – 1A
Carter Wilkie – 1A
Clark Bishop – 1A
Yan Kuznetsov – 1A

Next up

This game wrapped up Calgary’s last road trip of the regular season. They’re back home next weekend to play their last series before playoffs. They host the San Jose Barracuda, who they are tied with in winning percentage but just slightly ahead of in standings due to their record. These games will help secure their final standings to seed them for their opening playoff series. Their games are on Friday and Sunday and both games have a 1:00 p.m. MT start time over the holiday weekend.
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