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Wranglers series preview: A standings clash with Coachella Valley
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Photo credit: David Moll/Calgary Wranglers
Paige Siewert
Mar 4, 2025, 12:00 ESTUpdated: Mar 3, 2025, 22:48 EST
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The Calgary Wranglers continue their four game homestand with a two game series against the Coachella Valley Firebirds. They’re neck and neck with Coachella Valley in the standings with the same winning percentage, so this series holds weight. The Wranglers’ previous weekend series resulted in a split, but in the game they lost, they lost by quite a substantial amount. They fell to the Canucks on Saturday 8-4 and are in dire need of a redemption game so they don’t fall back into a lengthy losing streak. 

Projected lines

Calgary
Dryden Hunt – Rory Kerins – Martin Frk
Kyler Kupka – Sam Morton – Clark Bishop 
William Stromgren – David Silye – Parker Bell
Alex Gallant – Brett Davis – Lucas Ciona
Jonathan Aspirot – Tyson Barrie
Yan Kuznetsov – Hunter Brzustewicz
Artem Grushnikov – Jeremie Poirier
Devin Cooley 
Waltteri Ignatjew
Coachella Valley
Jani Nyman – Brandon Biro – Daniel Sprong
Tye Kartye – Logan Morrison – John Hayden
David Goyette – Mitchell Stephens – Ryan Winterton
Eduard Sale – Tucker Robertson – Jacob Melanson
Gustav Olofsson – Cale Fleury 
Max LaJoie – Ty Nelson 
Nikolas Brouillard – Ville Ottavainen
Ales Stezka
Victor Ostman

Leaders

Calgary
Martin Frk – 50GP, 21G, 28A
Dryden Hunt – 44GP, 13G, 31A
Rory Kerins – 45GP, 25G, 18A
Coachella Valley
Jani Nyman – 53GP, 25G, 15A
Ben Meyers – 45GP, 19G, 21A (Inactive on NHL call-up)
Logan Morrison – 54GP, 12G, 21A

Notes and expectations

The Wranglers got a small lineup upgrade for their last game against the Abbotsford Canucks when Dryden Hunt returned to reunite the top line. He had missed the last four games on standby with his wife as they awaited the birth of his child. He scored the fourth goal of the game in his return and his line was credited for three of the four Wranglers goals that evening. 
Another significant player that was missing from the lineup and remains missing is Sam Honzek. Honzek has missed the last three games and was absent from last weekend’s series against the Canucks. He suffered a lower body injury that happened sometime between the Wranglers’ game against the Ontario Reign on Sun., Feb. 23 and their game against the San Diego Gulls on Wed., Feb. 26. His timeline for return is unknown until the team releases another update so he may or may not be available for this mid-week series.
As for available players, the fanbase has grown accustomed to Devin Cooley automatically getting the majority of the starts but this last couple of weeks of hockey may turn the tables a bit. Waltteri Ignatjew started in the first game of the Canucks series on Friday and ended up coming in for Cooley about halfway through game two on Saturday. Ignatjew was in net for the losing streak snapping game and has had pretty solid numbers in the first couple of months of 2025. 
Waltteri Ignajtew spoke on some changes that were made in the new year after his win on Saturday. He said:
“Yeah, we came up with the new game plan, and I feel like now the last couple weeks or the last month, I’ve been able to execute the game plan follow the game plan and build with the game plan, so that’s that’s a huge deal for me.”
Interim head coach Joe Cirella also alluded to how some focused work with goaltending coach Mackenzie Skapski and some friendly competition provided some motivation to his netminders. He said,
“When we had the three goalies here, it made them refocus and I think that’s very important for when you create competition. I think it’s great that he gets an opportunity and it should be like that for a lot of other guys with all the changes and everything like that. They’re getting opportunities that they probably wouldn’t have gotten and that’s when we have to take that opportunity and run with it. He’s done a great job doing that.”
It might be Ignatjew leading the way for this series as the Wranglers and Firebirds play a midweek back to back starting on Tuesday night and continuing into Wednesday. Tickets are still available if you’d like to catch the action in person and the puck drop for both games will be at 7:00 p.m. MT. The Fan960 will carry the radio broadcast and streaming options are available on AHLtv on Flo Hockey for a fee. Multiple FlamesNation contributors will also have updates on X (formerly Twitter).
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