[News] [AHL Playoffs] Wranglers vs. Firebirds -- Games 1 & 2 in Calgary

[getbak]

I thought this was worthy of a thread on the main board since it means playoff hockey at the Saddledome.

Tonight, the Wranglers completed the sweep of the Tucson Roadrunners in the first round of the AHL playoffs. Now, the real playoffs begin. The Wranglers will face the Coachella Valley Firebirds in the second round.

The Firebirds are the AHL affiliate of the Seattle Kraken and have been one of the strongest teams in the AHL over the last two seasons. This year, they easily won the Pacific Division while the Wranglers finished 7th in the Pacific. As the last two games have shown, the Wranglers with Dustin Wolf are very different team than they are without him, so the 7th place finish is a bit misleading.


To minimize travel, the AHL schedule has the best-of-five series set up with a 2-3 schedule. The higher-ranked team has the option of starting on the road and retaining home ice in a potential Game 5, or starting at home and risking needing to play Game 5 on the road.

The Firebirds have chosen to keep home ice advantage, which means the first two games will be held at the Saddledome. The schedule has been released. Game 1 will be next Friday night.

1. Fri. May 03, 2024 - 7:00PM - CV @ CGY
2. Sun. May 05, 2024 - 4:00PM - CV @ CGY
3. Wed. May 08, 2024 - 7:00PM - CGY @ CV
4. Fri. May 10, 2024 - 7:00PM - CGY @ CV
5. Sun. May 12, 2024 - 3:00PM - CGY @ CV

Let's fill the Dome with the Red Wolf Pack!

[getbak]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1784089278932512992

[Paulie Walnuts]

Isn’t this one of the things that Love got a lot of heat for? He took the home games last year ?

[TheScorpion]

Yup. Coachella Valley is the higher seed this year and they've wisely chosen to take the final three games at home.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

Isn’t this one of the things that Love got a lot of heat for? He took the home games last year ?

Yes. I believe the Heat/Wranglers are the only team, when given the choice, who have chosen to sacrifice home ice in Game 5 to start the series at home.

To be fair to Love, he did it 4 times in the last two seasons and it worked 3 times, with the team winning the series in less than 5 games.

Last year's Pacific Division Final was the first time it didn't work for him, with the Wranglers losing the series in OT in Game 5 on the road.


Hopefully, the Wranglers win the first two games and the criticism falls on the CV coach (Dan Bylsma BTW) for giving them home ice to start the series.

[3rd liner]

Thanks! Nice to have playoff hockey at the dome! We've been to a few regular season Wranglers games- good hockey and doesn't cost a small mortgage to take the family.

What's up with the playoff scheduling though? 2 in one barn then three in the other? So weird. I'm sure it's to minimize costs and travel, but so strange compared to the NHL format.

[greyshep]

Originally Posted by 3rd liner

Thanks! Nice to have playoff hockey at the dome! We've been to a few regular season Wranglers games- good hockey and doesn't cost a small mortgage to take the family.

What's up with the playoff scheduling though? 2 in one barn then three in the other? So weird. I'm sure it's to minimize costs and travel, but so strange compared to the NHL format.

The AHL really has no idea or just doesn’t seem to care about fan engagement in the playoffs. Best of seven series don’t even start til round 4.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by 3rd liner

What's up with the playoff scheduling though? 2 in one barn then three in the other? So weird. I'm sure it's to minimize costs and travel, but so strange compared to the NHL format.

You answered your own question

[gvitaly]

Hopefully the Wranglers get some revenge for last year!

CV's offense will be a handful for the Wranglers. If I'm not mistaken, CV won 6 straight against the Wranglers before the Wranglers won the final meeting of the season.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by gvitaly

Hopefully the Wranglers get some revenge for last year!

CV's offense will be a handful for the Wranglers. If I'm not mistaken, CV won 6 straight against the Wranglers before the Wranglers won the final meeting of the season.

Correct, the Wranglers won the first and last meetings of the season, with 6 straight losses in the middle. One of the losses was in a shootout, so their overall record was 2-5-1 this season against CV.

Dansk and Murphy (shutout) were in goal for the two wins. Wolf had 1 loss and 1 shootout loss. Dansk had the other 4 losses. Dansk was pulled in 2 of the games, being replaced by Wolf in one and Murphy in the other.

[OldSam]

I listened to the game on the Fan last night. Pretty exciting by the sound I'd it. Go Wranglers!!

[greyshep]

Picked up a couple tickets for game 1 this morning. Hope people fill the building to help create a home advantage for the Wranglers.

[dino7c]

Awesome!

[dissentowner]

Will be interesting to see if Wolf can steal another series.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by getbak

Yes. I believe the Heat/Wranglers are the only team, when given the choice, who have chosen to sacrifice home ice in Game 5 to start the series at home.

To be fair to Love, he did it 4 times in the last two seasons and it worked 3 times, with the team winning the series in less than 5 games.

Last year's Pacific Division Final was the first time it didn't work for him, with the Wranglers losing the series in OT in Game 5 on the road.


Hopefully, the Wranglers win the first two games and the criticism falls on the CV coach (Dan Bylsma BTW) for giving them home ice to start the series.

Shoot. I didn't know about the bolded sentence. I would have been less hard on him had I known that, especially when you couple it with the series going the distance + OT.

[Locke]

Did the Flames send a bunch of the call-ups back to the Wrangler's for this? Whats the roster look like?

[looooob]

Originally Posted by Locke

Did the Flames send a bunch of the call-ups back to the Wrangler's for this? Whats the roster look like?

the very late callups (Klapka, Solovyov etc) are back. the 2 that were with the Flames for a longer duration that you are probably wondering about that were sent back were Wolf and Coronato (with Pelletier already down)


Zary did not go down

[Freeway]

Lines from Round 1, with team dressing 11 forwards & 7 defenders:

Pelletier - Schwindt - Coronato
Strömgren - Morton - Klapka
Sutter - Bishop - Damiani or Klapka
McLain - Jones - Klapka or Damiani

Oesterle - Solvoyov
Poolman - Poirier or Kuznetsov
Aspirot - Pysyk

Wolf
Dansk

Not dressed (but listed on roster): Murphy, Lyle, Grushnikov, Jurmo, Brzustewicz, Bell, Kerins, Honzek, Ciona, Gallant, Nikolaev

[The Wranglers left a lot of their ATO bodies at home for this round, likely to keep practices manageable.]

[Roof-Daddy]

Is Grushnikov hurt?

[Locke]

Originally Posted by looooob

the very late callups (Klapka, Solovyov etc) are back. the 2 that were with the Flames for a longer duration that you are probably wondering about that were sent back were Wolf and Coronato (with Pelletier already down)


Zary did not go down

Gracias Senor! Zary not going down is interesting. I wonder if he's hurt?

But thats good. Early in their career its good to play games and get the experience.

From what Freeway posted, that looks like a decent roster.