The Calgary Wranglers looked to hold their spot in the Pacific Division with a series opening game against the Coachella Valley Firebirds on Tuesday. Prior to this meeting, these two were dead even in the standings with the same amount of points and the same winning percentage. Coachella Valley had the better night and beat the Wranglers 6-1.

This result has allowed the Firebirds to climb to the top spot in the division while the Wranglers now sit in third.

Lineup notes

Tyson Barrie made a number switch prior to this game going from 14 to 22. Jakob Pelletier was previously wearing 22 and with his trade to the Philadelphia Flyers, that number was available for Barrie to take. 22 was Barrie’s preferred NHL number over the years so it made sense to accommodate that request.

As far as personnel changes went for this game, it was kept to a minimum. The only swap was between Brett Davis and Trevor Janicke. Otherwise, the lineup was the same as it was on Saturday with just a few tweaks to the forward lines with the exception of the top trio.

Wranglers lines

Dryden Hunt – Rory Kerins – Martin Frk

William Stromgren – Sam Morton – Parker Bell

Kyler Kupka – Clark Bishop – Lucas Ciona

Alex Gallant – David Silye – Trevor Janicke

Jonathan Aspirot – Tyson Barrie

Yan Kuznetsov – Hunter Brzustewicz

Artem Grushnikov – Jeremie Poirier

Devin Cooley

Game at a glance

Devin Cooley was back between the pipes for this game after getting pulled about halfway through their last game against the Abbotsford Canucks. On the Firebirds’ end, Nikke Kokko got the nod in net.

The Firebirds got going early and on just their second shot of the night, they beat Cooley to take an early 1-0 lead. A turnover in the Wranglers’ zone ended up on the stick of Tye Kartye, who jumped on the loose puck and shot it past Cooley’s low blocker side. This opening goal came just 3:31 into the game.

After this goal, the Wranglers got a couple of shots on the board and soon after the Firebirds found the back of the net again. Jacob Melanson was the goal scorer for this second marker of the period at 8:51. A shot attempt went off the post and up to the slot, where Melanson chipped it in.

The Wranglers got a little relief at 10:58 when the Firebirds were called for the first penalty of the game. Calgary just registered one shot on this man-advantage and shortly after it expired, they were on a penalty kill of their own.

The penalty kill was short lived when Tye Kartye scored his second of the period off a slap shot just seven seconds into the power play. This goal came at 13:43 and put the visitors up 3-0. After an already frustrating period, the Firebirds delivered one more blow before the end of the frame. David Goyette took a backhand shot while he was in the middle of a spin and made it a 4-0 game.

By the end of 20 minutes, Cooley ended up letting in four goals on eight shots and Calgary remained scoreless with seven shots on their end. The second period cooled off the Firebirds’ rush of scoring and was a much better frame for Calgary.

They had a couple of solid shifts to open things up and a power play chance at 7:39 to try and work on closing the gap in scoring. They didn’t end up doing so on the man advantage but did end up on the board before the end of the frame.

At 18:06, Dryden Hunt scored the first and only goal of the night for the Wranglers off a one-timer feed from Rory Kerins. Jonathan Aspriot also assisted on this marker.

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3:39 AM · Mar 5, 2025

Scoring stat summary

Dryden Hunt – 1G

Rory Kerins – 1A

Jonathan Aspirot – 1A

Highlights

Next up

Calgary will need a short memory about this game as they’re right back at it on Wednesday night. They’ll wrap up their four game homestand with their second game of the midweek series against the Coachella Valley Firebirds. The puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m. MT.

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