It’s been nearly a week since the Calgary Wranglers picked up a much needed win against the Manitoba Moose on Mar. 9. They had a hard stretch of games through February and into early March, just winning two of 14 games in that time. Hopefully, this win is the start of a positive path forward into the last month of the regular season. The final stretch continues this weekend for a two game road series against the Abbotsford Canucks.
Projected lineups
Calgary
Rory Kerins – Sam Morton – Martin Frk
William Stromgren – Clark Bishop – Parker Bell
Lucas Ciona – David Silye – Jonathan Aspirot
Alex Gallant – Brett Davis
Ilya Solovyov – Tyson Barrie
Yan Kuznetsov – Hunter Brzustewicz
Artem Grushnikov – Jeremie Poirier
Joni Jurmo
Devin Cooley
Waltteri Ignatjew
Abbotsford
Arshdeep Bains – Max Sasson – Linus Karlsson
Sammy Blais – Aatu Raty – Jujhar Khaira
Tristen Nielsen – Ty Mueller – Danila Klimovich
Ty Glover – Chase Wouters – Nate Smith
Guillaume Brisebois – Cole McWard
Christian Wolanin – Jett Woo
Akito Hirose – Kirill Kudryavtsev
Ty Young
Nikita Tolopilo
Leaders
Calgary
Martin Frk – 53GP, 21G, 28A
Dryden Hunt – 48GP, 15G, 33A
Rory Kerins – 49GP, 26G, 20A
Abbotsford
Aatu Raty – 37GP, 15G, 21A
Christian Wolanin – 43GP, 3G, 30A
Linus Karlsson – 28GP, 19G, 13A
Notes and expectations
The reinforcements for the AHL squad were enjoyed while they had them. Now, after Mikael Backlund suffered an upper body injury in the Flames’ game against the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday, and Connor Zary was suspended two games for his hit on Elias Pettersson, the NHL squad needed some more bodies.
The skaters who were called up to the Flames were Adam Klapka on Wednesday (as an extra prior to the Vancouver game) and Dryden Hunt on Friday (after Backlund’s injury and Zary’s suspension). Both were contributing factors in the success and scoring the Wranglers found last weekend against the Moose. Dryden Hunt had an assist in their 3-2 win and both Klapka and Hunt scored in their narrow 6-5 loss last Saturday. Martin Frk was missing from the lineup in their last game but will likely be back if this was not an injury based lineup decision.
Losing two forwards to call-ups puts the Wranglers pretty backend heavy again. Especially since Jonathan Aspirot skated as a forward last game. It would be a good time for Sam Honzek to return from injury but that will not be known until game time Saturday. To fill some of the gaps, the Wranglers acquired Ty Tullio from the Buffalo Sabres organization on a loan. He’s been playing with the Rochester Americans this year and has seven points in 30 AHL games played this year.
On the other end of things, the Abbotsford Canucks are not as removed from game action as Calgary as they just played the Bakersfield Condors on Wednesday and won 2-1. Abbotsford is just one behind Calgary in the standings and the result of this two game set could either help or harm the Flames’ affiliate spot in the Pacific Division.
This series starts on Saturday night at 8:00 p.m. MT and continues into Sunday for an evening game at 5:00 p.m. MT. Both games will be streamed on AHLtv on Flo Hockey for a fee and multiple FlamesNation contributors will have updates on X (formerly Twitter).
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