Familiar Foes: Calgary Wranglers Must Face Abbotsford Canucks at Least Once More

The AHL's Calgary Wranglers had a chance to sweep the Abbotsford Canucks on Wednesday, but the Pacific Division semifinal continues.

The Calgary Wranglers were the best team in the AHL regular season, but the Abbotsford Canucks are serving up a test in their Pacific Division semifinal.

After starting their best-of-five series with a pair of overtime wins at the Saddledome, the Wranglers saw their series extended when the Canucks posted a 3-2 win as the scene shifted to Abbotsford on Wednesday night.

"Anytime you're trying to put a team away in a hockey series, whether it's a best-of-five or best-of-seven, it's typically the hardest game," said Mitch Love, who was named the AHL's 2022-23 coach of the year after guiding the Wranglers to a .736 points percentage in the regular season.

"I thought our execution was a little slow tonight," Love added. "We knew it wasn't going to be easy, and that's a good hockey team over there. We'll reset."

The Wranglers opened the scoring early when Jeremie Poirier beat Abbotsford netminder Spencer Martin from the high slot at 4:37 into the first period. 

Then, the Canucks struck for three straight goals. Linus Karlsson levelled the score with his team's first power-play goal of the series before the end of the opening frame. In the second, AHL defenseman of the year Christian Wolanin was credited with his first of the playoffs when his point shot deflected off a Calgary stick in front of all-star goalie Dustin Wolf. 

Early in the third, Kyle Rau and Tristen Nielsen combined on a counterattack chance for what proved to be the game-winner.

Midway through the final frame, Calgary's Nick DiSimone made it interesting with his first goal and team-leading fifth point of the playoffs.

But after the Canucks let a 3-1 lead slip away in Game 2, they locked things down on Wednesday to preserve their first win of the series.

"There wasn't much there after that point," said Martin, who finished the night with 25 saves and was named the game's first star. "That's tough to do with 10 minutes left. So yeah, credit to the boys."

Now, with momentum on their side, the Canucks will fight another day. And while they finished 19 points behind the Wranglers in the regular-season standings, they believe in themselves.

"It's two of the best teams in the league right here," said Abbotsford defenseman Jack Rathbone, who scored two goals in the Canucks' 2-0 sweep of the Bakersfield Condors in their Pacific Division first-round series. 

"This is why you play. These are the games you want to play in."

They also now hold home-ice advantage in the series, which is played in a 2-3 format. As the higher-seeded squad, the Wranglers elected to open in their home barn.

"We've been a good road team all year, I think one of the best in the league," he said. "We've been a good home team this year, I think one of the best in the league."

That's not hyperbole. The Wranglers were a league-leading 26-8-1-1 on the road this season and finished second only to the expansion Coachella Valley Firebirds with a home record of 25-9-2-0.

"We went through this process last year with the bye, in terms of choosing where we wanted to play," added Love. "We enjoy playing in the Saddledome front of our fans and that's what I went with. Got to try to find a win out of three in this building."

Last season, when the franchise was still based in Stockton, the Heat finished first in the Pacific and received a first-round bye. They swept their semifinal series against the Bakersfield Condors after opening on home ice, then beat the Colorado Eagles in four games in the Pacific Division final.

In the Western Conference final, they surrendered home-ice advantage to the Chicago Wolves, who won the series in six games and went on to win the Calder Cup.

Between the Wranglers and the Canucks, familiarity has most certainly bred contempt. Post-whistle scrums stretched Wednesday's game to a run time of two hours and 42 minutes — long, by today's standards. And players on both sides were seizing every opportunity to finish their checks — no one more than bruising Abbotsford defender Noah Juulsen, who did not dress in Game 2.

"He makes a big impact," said Abbotsford coach Jeremy Colliton. "He plays so hard, so physical, but it's clean.

"Yeah, he hits hard. But if you can tag every single hit he makes, there's nothing over the line — which is, to be honest, an unbelievable skill to have. He doesn't take penalties because he's doing everything right."

The Canucks and the Wranglers have faced each other 15 times this year, with Calgary holding the 8-4 edge in the regular-season series. Plenty of personal feuds have developed. And as these games get more and more important, the intensity continues to rise.

After Game 3, Colliton demurred when asked to rank the intensity on a scale of one to ten.

"It was up there, for sure," he said with a grin. "Don't want to put a number on it and go higher, right?"

The Wranglers will get their second chance to advance and the Canucks will try to force a deciding contest when Game 4 goes Friday at Abbotsford Centre (7 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. MT).