Achi news desk-
The Wranglers completed a first-round upset on Friday, defeating Tucson 4-3 to advance to the second round of the AHL playoffs.
William Stromgren went from one end to the other midway through the third period, splitting the Roadrunner defense and parking it in the net to give the Wranglers a 4-2 lead that proved to be the winner.
“Stromgren! What a goal! Oh baby, that’s you Bob Cole!,” exclaimed Wrangler play-by-play announcer Sandra Prusina, paying tribute to the Hockey Night in Canada legend who died earlier this week at age 90.
Sam Morton, Riley Damiani, and Ilya Solovyov scored the other goals for the Wranglers.
Dylan Guenther, Justin Kirkland and Hunter Drew scored for Tucson.
Dustin Wolf stopped 40 shots to lead the Wranglers, two nights after stopping all 46 shots in a 2-0 Game 1 Wrangler win.
The Wranglers face top-seeded Coachella Valley in the best-of-five Pacific Division semifinals starting next week.
“Very proud of our boys. They came out strong and had a good push in the third,” Wrangler coach Trent Culll said.
He said it was nice to move on to the next round, which means Calgary will be the site of Game 1 and Game 2, next Friday at 7 pm and Sunday at 4 pm
“It’s amazing. I’ve never been there for that, home playoffs, so I’m looking forward to that.”
