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Wranglers Recap: Sam Morton’s two goal game overshadowed in 7-2 loss
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Photo credit: Andreea Cardani/San Jose Barracuda
Paige Siewert
Feb 1, 2026, 12:00 ESTUpdated: Feb 1, 2026, 00:41 EST
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The Calgary Wranglers and Flames both played their respective San Jose teams on Saturday. The Flames had a much better game, picking up a 3-2 win at home. The Wranglers on the other hand, had another game get out of reach and were running a limited defence with Zayne Parekh gone and Nick Cicek injured. Their final score was a barn burner that ended in a 7-2 win for the San Jose Barracuda.

Lineup notes

During the afternoon Flames game on Saturday, the team announced the transaction to recall Zayne Parekh back to the Flames. This was expected and wrapped up Parekh’s 2025-26 campaign in the AHL. The Wranglers provided an injury update prior to this game, including a status update on Nick Cicek, who exited the game on Friday in the third period. 
Nick Cicek is out day-to-day with a lower body injury, Xavier Bernard is also out day-to-day with a lower body and Owen Say is out month-to-month with a lower body injury. As Sandra Prusina noted on the broadcast, Nick Cicek tried to go out for the morning skate on Saturday but was unable to play through the aggravation he is feeling from a blocked shot in the game prior. With no Parekh and two defencemen injured, the Wranglers are running with all of the rest of the defenders they have left.
Other than the players mentioned above, the only other lineup change was Alex Gallant coming in for this game and Carter Wilkie coming out. 

Wranglers lines

Rory Kerins – Sam Morton – Dryden Hunt
William Stromgren – Clark Bishop – Martin Frk
Lucas Ciona – Carter King – Aydar Suniev
Parker Bell – David Silye – Alex Gallant
Artem Grushnikov – Damiil Miromanov 
Turner Ottenbreit – Jeremie Poirier 
Etienne Morin – Simon Mack
Ivan Prosvetov (starter)
Arsenii Sergeev

Game at a glance

Ivan Prosvetov got the start for the second night in a row and the Barracuda switched things up between the pipes with Gabriel Carriere getting the start. Sam Morton had a chance in the first minute on a breakaway, but the San Jose defender caught up to him and broke up his shot. Right after this chance, Braden Hache took a shot on the other side and beat Ivan Prosvetov glove side. This goal was on the Barracuda’s first shot of the game.
Just over a minute later, Sam Morton got another chance and didn’t let this one pass him by. He pounced on a loose puck in front of the Barracuda net and beat Carriere with the answer back goal. This equalizer came unassisted.
The Wranglers built off this goal with a few more shots on goal and were the first team on the power play with a tripping call against Filip Bystedt at 6:28. For the first power play unit, and limited options on the back end, the Wranglers went with a five forward line of Sam Morton, Martin Frk, Rory Kerins, William Stromgren and Dryden Hunt. They had a couple of looks but weren’t able to connect on this power play. 
After this power play, the Barracuda made a push in the back half of the period and led most of the opportunities. Thankfully, Prosvetov continued to turn them away and kept the score even at one. By the end of the first period, it was a 1-1 game with San Jose having a slight edge in shots 10-9. 
San Jose had the better start in the second as they scored the go-ahead goal 31 seconds in. Oliver Wahlstrom beat Prosvetov with a top corner shot to take back the lead. Shortly after at 3:44, Alex Gallant was called for interference and the Wranglers’ penalty kill activated for the first time this game.
Calgary had a good penalty kill and managed to keep San Jose’s chances to a minimum. At 8:54, San Jose added another tally to their lead with a goal from Mattias Havelid off a one-timer. Then at 10:03, the Barracuda added another off a marker from Anthony Vincent. This goal ended Ivan Prosvetov’s night and Arsenii Sergeev came in for the second half of the game.  
Calgary was trying to prevent a repeat of Friday’s game and Sam Morton scored an answer back goal just 32 seconds after the last San Jose goal. Morton won the faceoff, Rory Kerins got to the puck behind the net and set up Morton to bury the puck for his second goal of the night. 
A few minutes later, Parker Bell put up a hit on Luca Cagnoni and answered for it with a fight with Nolan Allan at 14:04. This was a good scrap for both sides and Bell got a few fist pumps in the box from his teammates over this fight that helped bring some energy to this period.
Four minutes later, Bell was joined by Turner Ottenbreit in the box for roughing. These responses kept Calgary in this game and prevented this game from running away from them. By the end of the second period, the Barracuda were up 4-2 and shots in the middle frame were an even 7-7. 
There was still just over 30 seconds left of Ottenbreit’s penalty to start the third, but the Wranglers killed that off no problem. Calgary had a couple of good looks in the early minutes of this frame with Jeremie Poirier getting a good chance on the doorstep, then Martin Frk getting stopped on a slapshot. 
Right after this, Egor Afanasyev scored off a backhander he elevated over Sergeev to make it a 5-2 game at 1:56. At 3:37, San Jose struck again when Cam Lund got past the defenders and beat Sergeev five hole on the breakaway. That quickly, the work they did in the second period to try to get back into it had dissolved. A few minutes after this goal, the Wranglers went back to that five forward line. This time for even strength. William Stromgren and Martin Frk were the stand in defenders if needed and the Wranglers were trying anything they could to chip away at this Barracuda lead.
Around the midway mark, Calgary gave up two breakaways. One that Sergeev broke up with his stick and another that was broken up on the rush and shot wide. After the midway mark of the period, the Wranglers had a couple of looks but the Barracuda continued to hit the gas. At 14:13, Filip Bystedt scored the seventh goal of the night for the home team off a wrist shot.
At 16:29, Alex Gallant’s night came to an end over an unsportsmanlike conduct call. He was also tagged for roughing, which Martin Frk served. Shortly after this penalty expired, the Wranglers were called for another when Clark Bishop was whistled for high-sticking. This pretty well brought the game to a close and the Wranglers fell for the second night in a row. This time by a final score of 7-2. Sam Morton picked up the second star of the night for his two goal performance and shots finished 28-24 for the Barracuda. 

Scoring stat summary

Sam Morton – 2G
Rory Kerins – 1A

Next up 

The Wranglers have fallen below .500 on the season after that loss and have one more game of this road trip as they face the Bakersfield Condors on Tuesday. That game gets going at 7:30 p.m. MT.

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