The Calgary Wranglers have one more stop on their road trip before they return home this weekend. After falling to the Bakersfield Condors and San Diego Gulls last weekend, they travel to Tucson, AZ to face the Roadrunners for a midweek series. The Wranglers are desperate for points with eight games left in the regular season and the Roadrunners want to be the ones to take them from them.
Projected lineups
Calgary
Sam Honzek – Rory Kerins – Martin Frk
William Stromgren – Sam Morton – Parker Bell
Lucas Ciona – Clark Bishop – Ty Tullio
Kyler Kupka – Carter Wilkie – Connor Mylymok
Artem Grushnikov – Ilya Solovyov
Yan Kuznetsov – Hunter Brzustewicz
Jeremie Poirier – Jonathan Aspirot
Devin Cooley
Waltteri Ignatjew
Other options – Brett Davis (F), Alex Gallant (F), Kaden Bohlsen (F), Joni Jurmo (D), Charles Martin (D)
Injured – Tyson Barrie, David Silye, Jarred Tinordi (Season-ending injury)
Tucson
Forwards – Ego Sokolov, Ryan McGregor, Ben McCartney, Sammy Walker, Travis Barron, Austin Poganski, Curtis Douglas, Andrew Agozzino, Hunter Drew, Cameron Hebig, Julian Lutz, Sam Lipkin
Defencemen – Peter DiLiberatore, Juuso Valimaki, Robbie Russo, Maveric Lamoureaux, Lleyton Moore, Kevin Connauton, Max Szuber, Artem Duda, Montana Onyebuchi
Goaltenders – Jaxson Stauber, Dylan Wells
Leaders
Calgary
Martin Frk – 59GP, 23G, 29A
Rory Kerins – 55GP, 27G, 24A
Dryden Hunt – 48GP, 15G, 33A (Inactive on NHL call-up)
Tucson
Kailer Yamamoto – 51GP, 19G, 32A (Inactive on NHL call-up)
Egor Sokolov – 64GP, 21G, 21A
Cameron Hebig – 59GP, 21G, 19A
Notes and expectations
As more NCAA seasons finish up, more opportunities for reinforcements come up for the Wranglers. On Monday, the team announced they added a right shot centre, Kaden Bohlsen, on an amateur tryout. Bohlsen played for Minnesota State University (Mankato) the last two seasons and had 17 points in 28 games this season. He was also a teammate of Sam Morton’s last season, so maybe they can bring some Maverick magic to this team.
This series between the Roadrunners and Wranglers carries a lot of weight. The Roadrunners benefit the most from the downfall of the Calgary and are likely preying on their demise. The Roadrunners are just one spot out from a playoff spot and are six points behind Calgary. This season, the Wranglers have had a winning record against the Roadrunners and sit at 4-2-0-0 on the season series record.
Calgary might be catching Tucson at the right time, however. They’ve only won one of their last five games and are 3-7-0-0 in their last 10 games. The Wranglers have also only won one of their last five and are 2-7-0-1 in their last 10. They’re both on losing streaks with Calgary up to three in a row and Tucson up to two. This might seem like one of the more even match-ups the Wranglers have seen lately.
This series starts on Tuesday night and continues for a back-to-back into Wednesday. Both games have a 7:30 p.m. MT puck drop and they can be streamed for a fee on AHLtv on Flo Hockey. Multiple FlamesNation contributors will also have updates on X (formerly Twitter).
Sponsored by bet365:
