Calgary Wranglers 2024 Second Round Playoff Primer

The Firebirds have a handful of impact forwards such as Kole Lind, Max McCormick, and Cameron Hughes, among others. However, the greatest postseason teams are always the deepest. If a player like Wright can step up and provide secondary scoring, the Firebirds could go a long way. This playoff could also serve as his true coming of age and final opportunity to coerce regular NHL duties in 2024-25. A solid performance this spring could vault him into a Kraken jersey for the foreseeable future.

Wranglers X-Factor: Dustin Wolf

The Wranglers’ unquestioned MVP is starting goaltender Dustin Wolf. The 23-year-old spent more time with the big club this season, going a respectable 7-7-1 in 17 appearances. In the ‘A’, his record was 20-12-3. Despite the limited time, he was still amongst the best goaltenders once more, with four shutouts (tied for fifth), a 2.45 goals-against average (tied for 10th), and a sparkling .922 save percentage (tied for third). He was in net for both wins against the Roadrunners and posted an otherworldly 46-save shutout in Game 1. He had another 40 saves in the series-clinching Game 2.

Wolf won back-to-back AHL Goaltender of the Year awards the previous two seasons, and won the AHL MVP award for his play in 2022-23. He can take over games whenever he is in the zone, and bail out his teammates should they give up high-danger scoring opportunities. With a bit weaker of a Wranglers squad than in years past, Wolf may be leaned on a bit more heavily and will need to continue his torrid play to ensure any team success. Like Wright, this could serve as a last-ditch effort to fully guarantee himself an NHL job next season. He could leave the Flames no choice but to keep him for all of 2024-25 with another outstanding performance against the Firebirds.

Head-to-Head Team Matchup

As previously mentioned, the Firebirds won the season series between the two teams, going 6-2 in eight meetings. Somewhat fortunately for the Wranglers, the series will begin with two games at Scotiabank Saddledome but all remaining games, if necessary, will be in Palm Desert, California. Another potential advantage will be readiness; the Wranglers scratched and clawed into the playoffs and of course, just beat the Roadrunners. The Firebirds clinched a playoff spot a long time ago and now have been resting since the end of the regular season as the division winners get first-round byes. The Wranglers and their fans will be hoping that the Firebirds team might be rusty to begin the series.

On paper, the teams’ matchup is well in the Firebirds’ favour. Interestingly, they have been a much stronger road team this season, going 26-5-5 in 36 away games. They scored the most goals in the AHL in 2023-24 with a whopping 252 and only allowed 182 goals against, a mark bested only by the reigning champion Bears. For comparison, the Wranglers scored 203 and let in 212. They simply don’t have the personnel that the Firebirds do. Lind, McCormick, Hughes, and Andrew Poturalski all had 51 points or more this season whereas the Wranglers’ leader was Adam Klapka, who had 46. One of the Wranglers’ biggest problems is staying out of the box; they had the eighth-most penalty minutes this season with 1,015 and a middling penalty kill that snuffed out only 80.9% of opportunities. Luckily for them, the Firebirds’ power play has only clicked at an 18.4% clip in 2023-24 but they shouldn’t take their chances despite this.

To end off, this should make for a tremendous series but the Wranglers have all of the odds stacked against them. This season’s Firebirds are essentially the same that took out the Wranglers last year, but better. Multiple Wranglers will need to step up, including the already amazing Wolf, if they want to get past such a team. More goals will need to come, and the Firebirds’ chances must be limited as much as possible which includes staying disciplined. The Wranglers need to continue embracing their underdog status and use it as fuel to power themselves past the Firebirds.