The Calgary Wranglers kicked off a midweek series against the Tucson Roadrunners on Tuesday night. Going into this game, the Roadrunners were two spots below the Wranglers, sitting eighth in the division standings. This game started a face to face battle for the standings and the last few playoff spots Tucson would like to rob Calgary of.
Lineup notes
Calgary went to a seven defender and 11 forward system for this game to get more of their blueliners in the lineup. Coming in for this game were Joni Jurmo, Kaden Bohlsen and Charles Martin. The skaters that came out compared to the last game were Kyler Kupka, Connor Mylymok, and Artem Grushnikov. Tyson Barrie and David Silye remain unavailable due to injuries.
Wranglers lines
Rory Kerins – Sam Morton – Martin Frk
Sam Honzek – Carter Wilkie – William Stromgren
Lucas Ciona – Clark Bishop – Ty Tullio
Parker Bell – Kaden Bohlsen
Ilya Solovyov – Jonathan Aspirot
Yan Kuznetsov – Hunter Brzustewicz
Charles Martin – Joni Jurmo
Jeremie Poirier
Waltteri Ignatjew
Game at a glance
To get this series going, the Wranglers started Waltteri Ignatjew in net and Jaxson Stauber got the nod for the Roadrunners. Calgary had some good jump going into this game and their initial burst of momentum was shut down by a penalty call against Ilya Solovyov at 4:58.
Just six seconds into this penalty kill, the Roadrunners opened the scoring with a goal from Ben McCartney. Tucson won the faceoff, and once they got the puck back to McCartney on the blue line, he took a shot off the end post and in on Ignathew’s glove side.
The Wranglers took back puck possession and found themselves on a power play of their own at 10:59. Just 24 seconds into this power play, the Wranglers found their equalizing goal from Rory Kerins. He hustled to catch up to the rush and scored off a backhand shot from Ty Tullio’s set up pass. Jonathan Aspirot also assisted on this marker.
The Wranglers were back on a power play shortly after this goal but couldn’t generate another power play goal on this opportunity. The Roadrunners got a few more shots off before the end of the period and at the end of 20 minutes, Tucson and Calgary were tied 1-1. Calgary outshot the home team 13-6 in the first frame.
In the second period, these teams were practically going shot for shot, trying to work for that go-ahead goal. Martin Frk and Clark Bishop both had a pair of looks in this period and it was pretty uninterrupted until the last few minutes. Bishop was called for slashing at 17:21 but Calgary killed off this penalty without giving up a shot.
At the end of the second period, the score remained 1-1 and shots in the middle frame were an even 8-8. Early in the third period, the Roadrunners scored the go-ahead goal on their second shot of the frame. The Wranglers were caught on a bad change and sprung Ryan McGregor on a breakaway that he set up Austin Poganski on to finish the play. This goal came at 2:54.
Right after this goal, the Wranglers’ netminder skated off for the delayed penalty call and they went on the power play at 3:36. Calgary was unable to register a shot on this man advantage. Calgary started to run out of time in regulation and Waltteri Ignatjew skated off for the extra attacker at 17:24. Before he could make it to the bench, the Roadrunners got puck possession back and scored on the empty net at 17:28 to make it a 3-1 game. Once the Wranglers got puck control again, Ignatjew skated to the bench at 18:05.
It was all Wranglers for the last two minutes of the third and they ended up getting one more goal on the board from Rory Kerins at 19:50 off a chipped in puck on the doorstep. William Stromgren picked up the lone assist.
Hunter Brzustwicz had the last shot at evening up this game when the horn sounded but rang it off the post. The Wranglers fell 3-2 and shots finished 29-20 for Calgary.
Scoring stat summary
Rory Kerins – 2G
Ty Tullio – 1A
Jonathan Aspirot – 1A
William Stromgren – 1A
Next up
These two are right back at it same time and place on Wednesday night for this standings battle. With this Roadrunners win and the Abbotsford Canucks beating the Bakersfield Condors, Tucson has climbed to the seventh and final playoff spot in the division. Calgary remains in the sixth spot in the division. The Wranglers and Roadrunners will wrap up their regular season series on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. MT.
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