Wranglers' Captain Clutch Rallies Team To Overtime Victory

The Calgary Wranglers started a three-game road trip with a stop in southern California, facing off against the San Diego Gulls. In one of the wildest contests of the season, the Wranglers needed some overtime magic to skate away with a 6-5 win.

Down 5-4 in the dying seconds of the third period, with the net empty, Hunter Brzustewicz scored the game-tying goal with just 13 seconds left on the clock.

After his first shot was denied, he buried the rebound to send the game into overtime.

Roughly 45 seconds into the extra period, the Wranglers broke out of their zone on a two-on-one with Martin Frk and captain Clark Bishop passing back and forth.

Once the Gulls defender slid out of position, it was only Frk and Bishop alone with former teammate Oscar Dansk. After another pass, Bishop buried the final shot of the night, handing the Wranglers a dramatic come-from-behind victory.

Anyone who tuned into the first two periods of the contest would have never thought the final score would feature 11 goals since the Wranglers were only ahead 2-1 after 40 minutes.

Frk opened the scoring at 15:53 of the first period, as he cut in on a Bishop faceoff win deep in the Gulls zone to fire home the game's first goal.

Meanwhile, in the second, Jonathan Aspirot extended the lead to 2-0 at 8:30, skating alone in the slate, finishing off a feed from Brett Davis for his first AHL point. Parker Bell picked up a second assist on the play.

The Gull cut into the lead at 13:33 when Sasha Pastujov scored a powerplay goal.

The third period ended up being a goalie's worst nightmare. First, the Gulls tied things up at 7:21 when Judd Caulfield scored his third of the year. About 40 seconds later, Bell ripped home through a defender and through Dansk's pads to restore the Wranglers' one-goal lead.

The goals kept coming. Twenty seconds after Bell's goal, the Gulls tied things again at 8:27 when Tristan Luneau scored. However, Calgary responded less than a minute later when Sam Morton tucked one home on the backside of the net, burying a corner feed from Dryden Hunt. William Strömgren picked up a second assist, his 19th of the season.

Fortunately, things quieted for two minutes, but the Gulls made it 4-4 with a goal from Pavol Regenda at 11:10 before Nathan Gaucher gave the home team their first lead at 14:45.

After that last Gulls goal, Wranglers' netminder Connor Murphy shut the door, giving his teammates Brzustewicz and Bishop to become heroes.

Murphy finished the night with 33 saves on 38 shots, equalling a .868 SV%, while picking up his second win. Conversely, former Wranglers goalie Dansk surrendered six goals, stopping only 22 of 28 shots for a .786 SV%. Interestingly, it was the second consecutive start where the Gulls' goalie gave up six goals.

Meanwhile, the Wranglers scored six goals on 28 shots, but they only reached double digits (14) in the third, getting outshot (38-28) for the fourth game in a row.

Calgary didn't score any powerplay goals, going 0-for-3 on the man advantage, but surrendered a shorthanded goal while giving up another one on the penalty kill, as San Diego finished 1-for-3.

After the emotional win on Saturday night, there's no rest as the Wranglers (26-12-1-0) hit the ice again on Sunday to face the Ontario Reign (21-13-0-1).

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