Injury update presented by @MFradiology: Devin Cooley (upper body) day-to-day
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Recap: Wranglers wrap up brief homestand with a sweep over the Roadrunners
Photo credit: David Moll/Calgary Wranglers
Jan 16, 2025, 10:00 ESTUpdated: Jan 16, 2025, 02:09 EST
The Calgary Wranglers were back on home ice on Wednesday night after beating the Tucson Roadrunners 5-2 on Tuesday night. It was a closer game in this match-up with both teams trying to slowly inch ahead and keep the lead but their opponents coming right back with an answer back goal.
Once the Wranglers got the lead, they kept it for the rest of the game. Calgary won this match-up 4-3 to complete the sweep over Tucson.
Lineup notes
Earlier in the day, the team did provide an update on Devin Cooley’s status. It was assumed he suffered an injury during the Colorado Eagles game last Friday but not officially confirmed until Jan. 15. The good news for the up and coming netminder and AHL All-Star is that his status is just day-to-day rather than week-to-week or indefinite. Per reports from his rabbit Tito’s official Instagram account, he is currently recovering from a concussion.
There were just a couple of changes for this game as the Wranglers reverted back to their extra defencemen system of 11 forwards and seven blueliners. Coming out of the lineup was Parker Bell and Artem Grushnikov returned to the lineup. For this adjustment, Jonathan Aspirot played a hybrid forward/defence role where he mostly played the fourth line on the wing.
Wranglers lines
William Stromgren – Sam Morton – Dryden Hunt
Sam Honzek – Clark Bishop – Martin Frk
Lucas Ciona – David Silye – Adam Klapka
Alex Gallant – Trevor Janicke
Yan Kuznetsov – Hunter Brzustewicz
Ilya Solovyov – Artem Grushnikov
Jarred Tinordi – Jeremie Poirier
Jonathan Aspirot
Waltteri Ignatjew
Game at a glance
The Wranglers brought in Waltteri Ignatjew to start this game after Connor Murphy picked up the win in the night previous. The Roadrunners also switched things up between the pipes with Jaxson Stauber getting the start. This game got going early with just the second shot of the night beating Ignatjew. Lleyton Moore took the first shot and Cameron Hebig scored on the rebound just 50 seconds in. The assists were credited to Moore and Kailer Yamamoto.
Shortly after this goal, Clark Bishop was dealt the first penalty of the night for tripping and the Roadrunners rang a shot off the post. It was a big penalty kill for Calgary to avoid letting this game get too ahead of itself.
They succeeded in killing off the penalty and just 4:27 into the period, Hunter Brzustewicz tied things up with his second goal of the season. He took a shot through traffic and got the puck past the Roadrunners netminder. Yan Kuznetsov and Jonathan Aspirot assisted on this first Wranglers goal.
Great shot from Hunter Brzustewicz through traffic to even up this game.
The game got past its sporadic start and the Wranglers looked more composed after evening things up. They got their opportunity on the man-advantage at 9:11 but did not find goal number two during this time. Instead, the next goal on the board would be from the visiting team when Cameron Hebig scored his second of the night when a rebound deflected off the crossbar, leaving Ignatjew’s glove side wide open for him.
A few minutes later, William Stromgren was taken down along the boards and on the change, Alex Gallant came out on the ice to fight the perpetrator, Montana Onyebuchi.
Alex Gallant comes off the bench and drops the gloves to defend a hit on William Stromgren.
They took their respective fighting majors at 16:08 then the period closed out. The Roadrunners had a 2-1 lead at the end of 20 minutes and outshot the Wranglers 12-11 through the first. In the second period, the Wranglers had a few opening looks and did even up the score when Ilya Solovyov took a long shot from the point that made its way past Stauber.
Ilya Solovyov scores from the point. Both goals tonight have come from defenders.
Artem Grushnikov and Martin Frk assisted on this goal at 3:35. Things stayed even for the next few minutes but Tucson struck again at 10:55 with a marker from Ryan McGregor when he jammed the puck in on the doorstep. About a minute later, the Roadrunners were called for a too many men bench minor.
Just 29 seconds into this power play, Martin Frk scored the first goal from a forward and tied the game for the third time in this game. William Stromgren and Adam Klapka picked up the assists on this goal at 12:26.
Power play goal for Martin Frk to even things up once again
Just a couple of minutes later, the Roadrunners were back in the box due to a delay of game call. Within the first minute of this power play, the Wranglers scored another goal off a shot from a distance. This goal was scored by Dryden Hunt and assisted by Jeremie Poirier and Martin Frk, finally giving the Wranglers their first lead of the night.
Dryden Hunt scores his 11th goal of the season on the power play and puts the Wranglers up 4-3. Hunt now has five goals in his last six games.
By the end of the second period, Martin Frk and Ben McCartney got tied up in the Wranglers zone after the buzzer and were dealt offsetting roughing calls to start the third. Going into the second intermission, the Wranglers had a 4-3 lead over the Roadrunners but were out-shot 12-10 in the frame.
The spirited action died down a bit in the opening half of the third period and the goaltenders weren’t getting as much work as they did earlier in the night. Late in the period David Silye was called for a faceoff violation for batting the puck with his hand and took a seat with just over 3:30 to go in regulation.
This was a big penalty killing effort for the Wranglers to protect their lead in the last few minutes of the period. The Roadrunners called a timeout at 2:18 and pulled their goalie the next shift. Calgary succeeded in killing the penalty and protected their lead down to the final second. They won 4-3 and completed the sweep to bounce back from their brief losing streak last week.
Shots finished 36-25 favouring Tucson and two out of the three stars of the night went to Wranglers. Martin Frk got the first star and Dryden Hunt got the second.
Scoring stat summary
Artem Grushnikov – 1A
Jeremie Poirier – 1A
Hunter Brzustewicz – 1G
Ilya Solovyov – 1G
William Stromgren – 1A
Dryden Hunt – 1G
Martin Frk – 1G, 2A
Yan Kuznetwsov – 1A
Adam Klapka – 1A
Jonathan Aspirot – 1A
Highlights
Next up
The Wranglers are right back to it this weekend but go back on the road to play the San Diego Gulls on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. MT then the Ontario Reign on Sunday at 4:00 p.m. MT to wrap up the week.
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