The Calgary Wranglers enter their second last series of the regular season, against the Abbotsford Canucks, within spitting distance of a playoff spot. Their position in the standings should give them a playoff spot but a good weekend of hockey and a not so good weekend of hockey for the eighth place team could clinch them a spot in the post-season. They’re the masters of their own fate if they want to be.

Rory Kerins – Sam Morton – Ty Tullio

William Stromgren – Sam Honzek – Martin Frk

Lucas Ciona – Clark Bishop – Parker Bell

Brett Davis – Carter Wilkie

Ilya Solovyov – Jonathan Aspirot

Yan Kuznetsov – Hunter Brzustewicz

Jeremie Poirier – Artem Grushnikov

Joni Jurmo

Devin Cooley

Waltteri Ignatjew

Sammy Blais – Chase Wouters – Phillip Di Giuseppe

Arshdeep Bains – Ty Mueller – Danila Klimovich

Tristen Nielsen – Jujhar Khaira – Nate Smith

Ty Glover – Cooper Walker – Dino Kambeitz

Christian Wolanin – Jett Woo

Guillaume Brisebois – Cole McWard

Akito Hirose – Kirill Kudryavstev

Nikita Tolopilo

Arturs Silovs

Rory Kerins – 59GP, 32G, 26A

Martin Frk  – 63GP, 23G, 32A

Dryden Hunt – 48GP, 15G, 33A (Inactive on NHL call-up)

Arshdeep Bains – 46GP, 10G, 31A

Aatu Raty – 41GP, 17G, 22A (Inactive on NHl call-up)

Ty Mueller – 62GP, 12G, 26A

Since their last game, the Wranglers have moved one point up on their magic number chase. They now sit at a magic number of three, with four games remaining. Any combination of them picking up points and Bakersfield falling farther out of the playoff this race this weekend puts them within a very close distance. The Bakersfield Condors face the San Diego Gulls and the Coachella Valley Firebirds this weekend. Bakersfield did play earlier this week but beat the Henderson Silver Knights 4-2, so it didn’t affect Calgary’s magic number.

For Calgary’s weekend series, they go on the last regular season road trip to Abbotsford, BC to face the Canucks. Not only has Abbotsford clinched a playoff spot, but they’ve also earned home ice advantage as of Sunday. Abbotsford is rolling and one of the hottest teams in the league right now. They’ve won 13 straight games, with their two latest wins coming against the Laval Rocket last weekend.

The odds are against the Wranglers for these game but they have been trending in the right direction in the last couple of weeks. Scoring from Rory Kerins, Sam Morton and some of their other new players has increased and Devin Cooley’s game between the pipes has levelled out and been more controlled. Kerins, in particular, has seven points in his last few games and will be a player to watch in these crucial games.

They’ll get this series started on Friday night and continue into a back to back on Saturday. Both games have an 8:00 p.m. MT start time. The games are available to stream on AHL.tv on Flo Hockey for a fee and multiple FlamesNation contributors will have updates on X (formerly Twitter).