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What’s at stake in the Wranglers’ regular season finale
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Photo credit: Mike Zitek/Coachella Valley Firebirds
Ryan Pike
Apr 20, 2025, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 20, 2025, 10:26 EDT
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On Sunday afternoon, the Calgary Wranglers will host the San Jose Barracuda in their final regular season game of the 2024-25 season.
Their season will continue, as the club has qualified for the 2025 Calder Cup playoffs. Their first round opponent will be determined by the result of Sunday’s game. Because the Wranglers are the lower-seeded team, they would play all of their first round games on the road.
If the Wranglers beat San Jose in regulation, they will pass San Jose in the standings and finish fifth in the AHL’s Pacific Division. As the fifth-place team, they would be matched up with the fourth-place team, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, in the best-of-three first round.
The Wranglers have played Coachella Valley in the playoffs in each of the past two seasons – a five-game loss in the division finals in 2023 and a four-game loss in the division semi-finals. The Wranglers won twice in eight meetings with the Firebirds this season.
Because of concerts booked at Acrisure Arena on Apr. 24 & 25, the prospective schedule – already posted by the Firebirds – is a bit spread out:
  • Game 1 would be Tue., Apr. 22
  • Game 2 would be Sat., Apr. 26
  • Game 3, if necessary, would be Sun., Apr. 27
If the Wranglers don’t beat San Jose in regulation, they will finish behind the Barracuda in the standings and be sixth in the AHL’s Pacific Division. As the sixth-place team, they would be matched up with the third-place team, the Ontario Reign, in the first round. The Wranglers have never faced Ontario in the AHL’s playoffs (nor did their predecessors, the Stockton Heat). This season, the Wranglers had two wins in eight meetings with the Reign.
Via Mayor’s Manor’s John Hoven, the prospective schedule with Ontario would be weird in different ways. You see, the Toyota Arena in Ontario has Disney on Ice booked Apr. 24-27, so here’s what the schedule would reportedly look like:
  • Game 1 would be Thu., Apr. 24 at Crypto.com Arena (in Los Angeles)
  • Game 2 would be Sat., Apr. 26 at Crypto.com Arena
  • Game 3, if necessary, would be Mon., Apr. 28 at Toyota Arena
So either way, the Wranglers are going to have a weird schedule and an opponent who they struggled against during the regular season. We’ll see if they can overcome these obstacles and manage to upset whoever they face in the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs.
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