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Wranglers series preview: Rallying up for the Roadrunners
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Photo credit: David Moll/Calgary Wranglers
Paige Siewert
Jan 14, 2025, 12:00 ESTUpdated: Jan 14, 2025, 00:56 EST
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The Calgary Wranglers are back on home ice this week and looking to switch up the results of their recent play. They’ve dropped their last three games and were swept by the Colorado Eagles over the weekend. It was a combination of factors leading to their lack of success including special teams struggles, goaltending and scoring. Hopefully some time at home turns the tables.

Projected lineups

Calgary 
Dryden Hunt – Clark Bishop – Martin Frk
William Stromgren – Sam Morton – Adam Klapka
Sam Honzek – Lucas Ciona
Alex Gallant – David Silye – Parker Bell
Yan Kuznetsov – Ilya Solovyov
Jarred Tinordi – Jonathan Aspirot 
Artem Grushnikov – Jeremie Poirier
Hunter Brzustewicz 
Devin Cooley
Waltteri Ignjatew 
Connor Murphy 
Tucson 
Forwards: Egor Sokolov, Ryan McGregor, Ben McCartney, Travis Barron, Austin Poganski, Curtis Douglas, Andrew Agozzino, Hunter Drew, Aku Raty, Cameron Hebig, Julian Lutz, Miko Matikka, Kailer Yamamoto, Sam Lipkin
Defencemen: Peter DiLiberatore, Robbie Russo, Maveric Lamoureax, Lleyton Moore, Kevin Connauton, Max Szuber, Artem Duda, Montana Onyebuchi
Goaltenders: Matthew Villalta, Jaxson Stauber 

Leaders

Calgary
Rory Kerins – 34GP, 21G, 13A (Inactive on NHL call-up) 
Dryden Hunt – 34GP, 9G, 23A
Clark Bishop – 34GP, 15G, 13A
Tucson
Egor Sokolov – 33GP, 13G, 14A
Andrew Agozzino – 31GP, 10G, 15A
Jailer Yamamoto – 25GP, 10G, 14A

Notes and expectations

The Wranglers start this week still out their top scorer, Rory Kerins, who made his NHL debut on Monday against the Chicago Blackhawks. He made quite a debut with an assist in his first shift and two assists on the night. As fans of the Wranglers, however, are you surprised? The line chemistry with Jakob Pelletier and Kerins is a lot of the reason he got off to such a hot start last October. 
The other noticeable lineup note is the fact Calgary is carrying three goaltenders at the moment. Waltteri Ignatjew played in both games over the weekend, coming in relief on Friday and going the distance on Saturday. Connor Murphy was called up between games and backed up Ignjatew on Saturday night. If Murphy is here for some sort of injury coverage, it appears to be in coverage of Devin Cooley. We will update on his status when it is shared by the team. 
Without that All-Star calibre goaltending, the Wranglers’ scoring troubles are showing themselves again. The top line continues to produce but in the last two games, they were the only ones doing so. Dryden Hunt and Martin Frk scored the only goals in their 7-2 loss on Saturday and Hunt and Clark Bishop scored the only two goals in their 5-2 loss on Friday. If you notice above, those three skaters make up their top line at the moment. Sam Morton and David Silye had a couple of looks but someone like Adam Klapka, who led team scoring last year, has not been up to that level of play in recent games. 
Another area of their game that has been hurting them is their discipline and penalty killing. The power play and penalty killing units have taken a personnel change like the rest of the lineup but too many chances are being given to their opponents. The most damaging part of their last game was a 10 minute misconduct, which took Frk out of the lineup for the second half of the second period and into the third. In this 7-2 loss, they gave up three power play goals and two shorthanded goals (mind you one was on an empty net). All of a sudden, you put yourself out of contention in a game like that. 
The Wranglers have a split record against the Firebirds by winning their last meetings in December but falling in Arizona the month prior in their season series opener. They compete well against this team so hopefully this series brings out what has been missing from their last few games. 
This series starts on Tuesday night and continues into Wednesday for a back to back showdown. Both games are at 7:00 p.m. MT and will be streamed on Flo Hockey for a fee if you don’t plan on attending in person. Sportsnet 960 will carry the radio broadcast and multiple FlamesNation contributors will have updates on X (formerly Twitter). 

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