Wranglers look to sweep at home following overtime win in Game 1

Jakob Pelletier was the hero Wednesday night at the Saddledome for the Calgary Wranglers as they defeated Abbotsford 3-2 in overtime (Photo: Twitter@AHLWranglers)

The Wranglers are looking for a sweep of the home portion of their series against Abbotsford after winning Game 1 3-2 in overtime Wednesday night.

Jakob Pelletier scored the game-winner 11:52 into the first extra period to give the host Wranglers a one-game lead in their best-of-five Pacific Division semi-final.

Dryden Hunt and Adam Klapka added singles for the Wranglers, and Dustin Wolf made 37 stops in goal. Wolf was named Player of the Game.

The Wranglers overcame a match penalty to leading scorer Matthew Phillips, who was tossed out of the game for spearing. Phillips was nailed with 15 minutes worth of penalties on the play, which were more than the 12 minutes he had for the entire regular season.

"I liked our guys' energy out there," Wrangler coach Mitch Love said Thursday. "Get what you need (in Game 1), then re-set and get ready for tomorrow."

The Wranglers also overcame an 11-day layoff, which Love admitted was a bit of a challenge.

"(The) break almost felt like it lasted forever," he said. "It was good for the guys to get out there."

He wasn't too thrilled with the match penalty assigned to Phillips but said that ultimately the team was able to produce a positive outcome out of a negative moment.

"That's the American Hockey League," he said. "In that circumstance, you would like it to be a different outcome there, but I thought our guys really stepped up (killing the penalty).

"(Then we) threw things in a bit of a blender with 11 forwards," Love added. "I thought our guys adapted for the most part playing with different guys each shift. I tried to balance the bench as best I could, but that's what good teams do this time of year," he added, "especially in adverse moments.

"It was a big penalty kill for us, and then it turned to four on four, and we got a big goal to get us going in the first," he added.

NO SUSPENSION

Phillips wasn't suspended and will be in the lineup for Game 2, which is tonight at the Saddledome.

"It was kind of an unfortunate thing," Phillips said Friday morning. "I just kind of got tied up trying to get through to the net - there was no intent there, so I'm glad there was no injury, and just happy the league saw it that way and happy to be back tonight."

Matthew Phillips returns to lineup Friday night for Game 2 against Abbotsford

Phillips apologized to the Abbotsford player he speared.

"I said 'Sorry, didn't mean to get you there.' It's unfortunate, everyone's trying to gain space out there, and it happened," Phillips said. "I only had 12 penalty minutes this year, so that's not really up my alley."

The final three games (if necessary) in the best-of-five will be in Abbotsford.

Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tickets are available here.