Recap: Hunter Brzustewicz scores first pro goal, Wranglers complete sweep over Moose

In the last 13 seconds of the period, the Moose made a play on Ignatjew that was close enough to take another look at. The puck was being pushed into the net but Ignatjew was able to keep it out. The AHL doesn’t have an official goal review but they can take another look at the streams to see if the puck passed the line or not. In this case, it did not and the score remained 1-0. 

That was the score after the remaining 13 seconds of the opening period and the Wranglers outshot the Moose 10-8. In the second period, Calgary was eager to pull ahead in this game but a penalty on Alex Gallant for slashing took a little momentum away. Not much, however, because Sam Honzek scored his second goal in as many nights shortly after this penalty was killed. 

This goal came at 6:38 when Honzek received a pass from Clark Bishop, sped his way into the zone and flipped the puck into the back of the net.

Just over a minute later, Hunter Brzustewicz scored his first professional goal at 7:42 after burying a rebound in the slot. Rory Kerins and Dryden Hunt assisted on Brzustewicz’s milestone goal. 

Shortly after this goal, Brad Lambert was called for hooking and less than a minute later, the Moose scored their first goal of the game shorthanded. C.J. Suess was the goal scorer and his marker came at 10:06. 50 seconds later, Jonathan Aspirot set up Martin Frk for a huge slap shot at 10:56 and Kahkonen didn’t have much of a hope in stopping that. Hunter Brzustewicz also picked up the secondary assist on this marker. 

The back and forth did not stop there as Mason Shaw got a puck past Ignatjew at 16:14. Dominic Toninato and Simon Lundmark assisted. That closed up the scoring through the second frame and the score was 4-2 Calgary after 40 minutes of play. Manitoba had the edge in shots this period outshooting Calgary 11-8. 

In the third, the Wranglers got caught on their heels early and almost paid for it in a goal. Fortunately, the Moose didn’t score on an early grade-A opportunity but instead waited until the midway mark to add to their score. The Moose took a shot off the faceoff win and got the puck past Ignatjew to bring the score to 4-3. This goal came from Captain, Dominic Toninato at 10:52. 

The visiting Winnipeg Jets affiliate kept trying for that next goal to try and even things up and pulled Kahkonen at 17:45 for the extra attacker. Sam Honzek got the puck in the empty net at 18:08 then Clark Bishop scored in the last 30 seconds on the empty net as well.

The Wranglers picked up a 6-3 win with those two late empty-netters and Waltteri Ignatjew picked up the win between the pipes. Shots finished 34-26 for Manitoba and the three stars went to Clark Bishop for the third, Sam Honzek for the second and Hunter Brzustewicz for the first. 

Scoring stat summary

Hunter Brzustewicz – 1G, 1A

Rory Kerins – 1A

Dryden Hunt – 1A

Clark Bishop – 1G, 2A

Martin Frk – 1G, 2A

Sam Honzek – 2G, 1A

Adam Klapka – 1G

Jonathan Aspirot – 1A

Highlights

Next up

This game wrapped up the Wranglers’ brief stretch at home and maintained their perfect record against Manitoba this season. They will now head on the road for the weekend to face the Coachella Valley Firebirds on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. MT and Sunday at 4:00 p.m. MT.