Riley Pollock – 24.04.24

A road win to start the post-season.

It was the Dustin Wolf show in game one of the AHL playoffs as he made 46-saves in a 2-0 Wranglers shutout win over the Tucson Roadrunners on Wednesday night.

Cole Schwindt scored the lone goal in the second period on a beautiful in-tight move.

The first period of game one saw a bunch of shots but a goaltending stalemate, that would be a theme on Wednesday night.  The Tucson Roadrunners had three powerplay opportunities but were unable to strike as Dustin Wolf made 15 saves in the period.

Schwindt opened the scoring for the Wranglers 6:14 into the second period to make the score 1-0.

The Wranglers thought they had jumped to a 2-0 lead on the powerplay midway through the 2nd period but after review it was deemed Adam Klapka knocked it in with his hand.

Wolf made a huge cross-crease save to keep the score 1-0 late in the second. He made 30-saves through 40-minutes.

Three penalties were taken by the two teams late in the frame, two by the Wranglers, making it a four-on-three heading into the third.

Tucson hit the post on the four-on-three powerplay less than 30-seconds into the final stanza but the score remained 1-0.

Both teams traded powerplays through the first-half of the third but neither team could find the back of the net as the game rolled on.

The Roadrunners pulled their goalie with about 90-seconds to go but it was Matt Coronato finding the empty net to make the final score 2-0 and give the Wranglers the 1-0 best-of-three series lead.

These two teams are back at it Friday night at 8 p.m. MT for game-two of the best-of-three series.