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Wranglers series preview: Fired up for the Firebirds
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Photo credit: David Moll/Calgary Wranglers
Paige Siewert
Dec 14, 2024, 10:00 ESTUpdated: Dec 14, 2024, 02:08 EST
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The Calgary Wranglers had a perfect four-game homestand against the Tucson Roadrunners and the Manitoba Moose the last couple of weeks and look to continue that success on the road. They head to warmer weather in Palm Springs, CA this weekend to face the Coachella Valley Firebirds for just the second and third time this season.

Projected lineups

Calgary
Dryden Hunt – Rory Kerins – Adam Klapka
Sam Honzek – Clark Bishop – Martin Frk 
Parker Bell – Sam Morton – Lucas Ciona
Alex Gallant – David Silye – Trevor Janicke
Yan Kuznetsov – Hunter Brzustewicz
Jonathan Aspirot – Jeremie Poirier
Joni Jurmo – Ilya Solovyov 
Waltteri Ignatjew
Connor Murphy
Coachella Valley
Jani Nyman – Ben Meyers – John Hayden 
Brandon Biro – Logan Morrison – Jagger Firkus
Lleyton Roed – Luke Henman – Eduard Sale
David Goyette – Tucker Robertson – Ian McKinnon
Gustav Olofsson – Ty Nelson
Max Lajoie – Nikolas Brouillard
Ryan Jones – Ville Ottavainen
Ales Stezka
Nikke Kokko

Leaders

Calgary 
Rory Kerins – 25GP, 17G, 11A
Dryden Hunt – 23GP, 6G, 18A
Clark Bishop – 25GP, 11G, 10A
Coachella Valley
Ryan Winterton – 16GP, 7G, 8A (Inactive on NHL call-up)
Ben Meyers – 18GP, 7G, 7A
Jagger Firkus – 22GP, 6G, 8A

Notes and expectations

With their last two series being back-to-back’s, William Stromgren opted for a maintenance day earlier this week to get some extended recovery time. That explains his absence from the projected lines but he should be back in time for these weekend games. Adam Klapka did have a good game on the top line, putting up a goal. However, with Stromgren’s current six-game point streak, I don’t think Klapka has played him out of a top line spot. 
Not joining the team for this road trip is Wranglers starting goaltender, Devin Cooley. Dan Vladar was reported as day-to-day with a lower body injury on Friday and Cooley was called up on an emergency basis in relief. To backfill him, Connor Murphy was called up from the Rapid City Rush on the same day, Murphy appeared in 15 games with the Wranglers last season and so far with the Rush this year, he has a 2-5-3 record, a 2.86 GAA and a .911 save percentage.
Calgary goes into this series on a six-game winning streak and might raise that to eight by the end of the week. Coachella Valley has historically given them good competitive games and last year, the Firebirds had quite an edge in the season series record. This year, they have only faced each other once so far. This was early in the season on October 16th and ended in a 3-1 win for the Wranglers. 
For Coachella Valley, they haven’t been up at the top of the Division giving the Wranglers a run for the top spot as they have the last two seasons. Instead, they sit at the fourth spot in the Pacific Division and near the middle of the league standings. The Firebirds played a three game series against the San Jose Barracuda and dropped all three games. Most recently, was a shootout loss on Thursday. The Seattle Kraken affiliates are going to be about ready to get back in the win column once they take the ice against Calgary this weekend.
This series puts the Wranglers on the road for the weekend and starts on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. MT and continues into Sunday for a late afternoon game at 4:00 p.m. MT. Streaming options are available on Flo Hockey for a fee and multiple FlamesNation contributors will have updates on X (formerly Twitter).

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