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Series preview: Wranglers catch up with Kevin Rooney and the Tucson Roadrunners this weekend
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Photo credit: David Moll/Calgary Wranglers
Paige Siewert
Oct 18, 2025, 10:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 18, 2025, 03:24 EDT
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The 2025-26 season is in full swing now and while the Calgary Wranglers are still looking for their first win of the year, they still have some positives to draw from their first series. Calgary’s top line has not skipped a beat and Dryden Hunt and Rory Kerins’ chemistry with William Stromgren is already helping him elevate his game.
With a week since their last game and some time to clean up the rust and nerves of the opening weekend, the Wranglers continue their road trip to Tucson, Arizona to play the Roadrunners.

Projected lineups

Calgary
William Stromgren – Rory Kerins – Dryden Hunt 
Clark Bishop – Sam Morton – Martin Frk 
Aydar Suniev – Carter King – Andrew Basha
Lucas Ciona – David Silye – Alex Gallant
Nick Cicek – Hunter Brzustewicz
Yan Kuznetsov – Jeremie Poirier
Etienne Morin – Simon Mack
Owen Say
Ivan Prosvetov 
Tucson 
Forwards: Owen Allard, Ryan McGregor, Ty Tullio, Kevin Rooney, Ben McCartney, Michal Kunc, Sammy Walker, Austin Poganski, Cameron Hebig, Julian Lutz, Noel Nordh, Daniil But, Sam Lipkin, Miko Matikka
Defencemen: Robbie Russo, Scott Perunovich, Artem Duda, Maveric Lamoureux, Lleyton Moore, Kevin Connauton, Max Szuber, Montana Onyebuchi
Goaltenders: Jaxson Stauber, Matthew Villalta

Leaders

Calgary 
Dryden Hunt – 2GP, 2G
Rory Kerins – 2GP, 2A
Martin Frk/Yan Kuznetsov – 2GP, 1G
Tucson 
Sammy Walker – 2GP, 2G, 2A
Cameron Hebig – 2GP, 1G, 2A
Ben McCartney – 2GP, 1G, 2A

Notes and expectations

It’s early in the season and while guys are healthy, there is still a lot of depth on this team. Artem Grushnikov and Parker Bell were the collateral damage in this scenario in their last series against the Colorado Eagles. Both played in the season opener and then were swapped out for Alex Gallant and Etienne Morin the following night. Not a bad issue to have but just further solidifies that there is competition in this roster and players are going to need to stay sharp to stay in.
Another thing that became apparent in the first couple of games is that the Wranglers don’t really have their starter role defined in net. Ivan Prosvetov was anticipated to be that guy, but had quite a shaky game last Friday, letting in six goals with the seventh goal being an empty netter. Owen Say came in the next game and only let in one goal on one shot and likely earned the start for the first game of this Roadrunners series. 
Speaking of the goalie situation, the Wranglers were carrying three netminders to start the season. Since their last game, they have gone ahead and assigned Arsenii Sergeev to the Rapid City Rush to join Connor Murphy. All four goaltending options in the affiliation leagues feel they need some time to develop before they’re in that conversation as Wolf’s backup. 
On the other side of the ice, there will be a couple of familiar faces. Ty Tullio came to the Wranglers on the back end of the 2024-25 season on a loan and signed a one year deal with Tucson prior to the start of this season. He has yet to play a game with Tucson, but with the Wranglers, he was a welcome addition to add some production to the top two lines. It’ll be interesting to see his dynamic on the other side of the ice. He’ll be wearing number 17 on the “dark side,” if he gets into either of these games. 
A little farther removed from the Wranglers but still in the Flames organization realm is Kevin Rooney, who is also on the Roadrunners now. Rooney hasn’t played a game with the Wranglers since the 2023-24 season but played 70 games with the Flames last season. He currently has two goals in two games with Tucson. Rooney wears his normal number 21 for Tucson as well. 
This series starts on Saturday for a 8:00 p.m. MT game then continues into Sunday for a 5:00 p.m. MT game. Streaming options are available for a fee on FloHockey and multiple FlamesNation contributors will have updates on X (formerly Twitter).

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