It’s been a grind of a week for the Calgary Wranglers and it continued with a Friday afternoon game at the Scotiabank Saddledome. They hosted the Abbotsford Canucks for the ninth time this season and went into the game ahead 4-1-1-2 in the season series. There was a little bit of fatigue showing in this game but Calgary kept things pretty even most of the game to the point it needed to be decided in a shootout. The Wranglers were unable to score in their shootout attempts and ended up falling 3-2.

Lineup notes

The Wranglers made an injury update prior to puck drop that announced both Rory Kerins and Lucas Ciona would not be playing in this game due to lower body injuries. A timeline wasn’t shared, just that they wouldn’t be available for this game. On a positive note, Dryden Hunt was able to return from his injury and Alex Gallant dressed for warm-up but did not slot into the game. The Wranglers ran with an extra defenceman for this game for an 11 and seven system and Artem Grushnikov returned to the lineup to float as the extra defender.

Wranglers lines

Dryden Hunt – Sam Morton – Aydar Suniev

William Stromgren – Justin Kirkland – Martin Frk

Ryan Chyzowski – Clark Bishop – Carter King

Parker Bell – David Silye

Nick Cicek – Daniil Miromanov

Turner Ottenbreit – Hunter Brzustewicz

Etienne Morin – Gavin White

Artem Grushnikov 

Arsenii Sergeev

Game at a glance

The Wranglers flipped back to Arsenii Sergeev for this game and on the Canucks’ end, Jiri Patera got the start. Aydar Suniev had the first quality chance of the game 4:59 in and ran his shot off the crossbar. Around the eight minute mark, Dryden Hunt was coming into the zone and lost his footing and fell feet first into the boards. It was a little scary as Hunt just came back from injury but he was able to get back up and stayed out for the next faceoff.

The first penalty of the game went against Abbotsford as Parker Bell was taken down with a high stick. Danila Klimovich went to the box at 9:02 to serve this call. William Stromgren got the best look of this power play and shot it into the netting.

The Wranglers seemed to be getting more of the zone time in the first but the Canucks were the ones putting up the higher quantity of shots. At 15:40, Abbotsford had a chance in tight to Sergeev but Hunter Brzustewicz made a smart defensive play to break up the shot at the last moment.

These teams swapped a few more chances before the end of the frame and at the end of 20 minutes, it was a scoreless game. The Canucks outshot the Wranglers 14-8 in the opening frame. The second period had a slower start, but Calgary had another power play chance at 5:28 when Danila Klimovich was called for slashing. Shortly after this penalty expired, the Wranglers were on a penalty of their own as Nick Cicek was called for holding. The Canucks got a few shots on this chance, but the Wranglers prevented any scoring from occurring.

The next penalty came late in the period at 16:15 when Clark Bishop got a high stick to the visor from Anri Ravinskis. This was Calgary’s best power play of the game but they couldn’t get anything past Patera. William Stromgren had the best chance with a one-timer shot. After this penalty expired, Arshdeep Bains broke out and Gavin White did his best to catch up to him but was just a couple of steps behind. Bains got the shot off and Sergeev managed to turn him away.

At the end of the second period, it was still a scoreless game and shots were close in that frame with Abbotsford narrowly outshooting Calgary 13-12. The first goal of the game came early in the third period when Nikolai Knyzhov took a shot from the point that Ben Berard deflected in. This goal was scored just 52 seconds into the third period.

The Wranglers didn’t delay long to answer back in the game. At 3:36, Sam Morton took the faceoff, Dryden Hunt got the loose puck and set up Morton for a quick shot that he beat Patera on to make it a 1-1 game.

nated over Sergeev. This goal came at 9:28. Once again, the Wranglers didn’t delay much before they evened things up once again. William Stromgren went for a shot and Martin Frk pounced on a rebound he got past Patera. Justin Kirkland also picked up the secondary assist. It was a nice goal and the celebration after the fact was entertaining as well.

The second half of the frame really could have gone either way for the go-ahead goal but neither side found it. At the end of regulation, it was a 2-2 game and shots through the third period were 12-10 for Calgary.

In overtime, it was mostly Abbotsford driving the charge and Sergeev continued to perform very well. Dryden Hunt registered the lone shot in the extra frame for Calgary and they ended up being outshot 5-1. They needed a shootout decision that started with attempts by Justin Kirkland and William Stromgren, who were both turned away. Abbotsford’s first two shooters, Ben Berard and Chase Stillman both scored so they wouldn’t need a third round.

Calgary fell 3-2 in the shootout in their 22nd game of the season that needed to be decided outside of regulation. Sam Morton was the only Wrangler on the three stars, picking up the third star of the game. Morton spoke to the media after the game and said:

“I think we had a lot of confidence on the bench. Obviously, it wasn’t the result that we wanted but I think the energy was good. We just need to get the outcome we’re looking for. It’s frustrating. We’ve had a lot of extra frame games. Even though single points are important this time of year, clawing for a playoff spot, it’s frustrating but at the end of the day, we play them again on Sunday. So regroup, fix some things and come back stronger.”

Scoring stat summary

William Stromgren – 1A

Dryden Hunt – 1A

Justin Kirkland – 1A

Martin Frk – 1G

Sam Morton – 1G

Highlights

Next up

The Wranglers have a day between games and will play the second half of this weekend series on Sunday afternoon. Sunday’s game is also an afternoon match-up with a 1:00 p.m. MT puck drop at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

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