The 100 Mile House Wranglers Junior B Hockey Club is 2-1 to start its inaugural season in the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL).
Coach/general manager Doug Rogers says a winning record on a three-day road trip is good for any team, and especially for one playing in its first season.
“As a whole, I thought the team performed very well for a first-year club with so many young, first-year players.”
Following a 5-4 victory against the Golden Rockets on Sept. 13 and a 4-3 overtime win versus the Columbia Valley Rockies on Sept. 14, the Wranglers travelled to Sicamous to face off against the Eagles on Sept. 15.
Despite putting 50 shots on net, 100 Mile House only managed one goal in a 5-1 loss.
“We outshot the Eagles 50 to 49 in the game, but we could not get any luck around the net or quality second chances.”
Rogers adds the game was the team’s third in 2.5 days and a first for goalie Ben Eddolls, who was back up to Kristian Stead for games 1 and 2.
“In Invermere to play the Rockies, we had no business being close in this game over two periods. Stead played remarkable over the first two periods before we started to get our legs going in the third period.
“We outplayed Columbia Valley in the third period and both overtime periods before Luke Santerno won it with a great shot off a face-off win by Michael Lynch. Santerno’s shot went off the bar and in from the top of the face-off circle.”
Stead was named starting goalie after an impressive pre-season. He’s looked so good in fact that he’s been called up to the British Columbia Hockey League to play with the Merritt Centennials.
“Eddolls will be taking the bulk of the load until Stead returns, or if Stead does not return from Merritt, another goalie is acquired.”
Team captain Jaiden Ward and defenceman Robert Orrey were lost due to injury in the Sicamous game and are being evaluated this week ahead of upcoming games against the Chase Heat.
The games go Friday (Sept. 20) in Chase and then in 100 Mile House on Saturday (Sept. 21) for the Wranglers’ regular season home opener. The puck drops at the South Cariboo Rec. Centre at 7 p.m.
“Chase is well-coached and they have a strong team this year, so we will need to play well to compete with them this weekend.”
Connor Sloan is 100 Mile House’s leading scorer with five points. Sloan sits tied for fourth among league leaders as of Sept. 16. Santerno is the team’s leading goal scorer with four. Tyson Levesque and William Orrey have three points. Lynch and Ward have two, while Darcy Flaherty, Lane Van De Wetering and Jayden Syrota have one.
Forward Kevin Raimundo leads the Wranglers in penalty minutes with 12.Editor’s Note: 100 Mile House Wranglers fans will be able to see all of the 100 Mile House Free Press Wranglers’ coverage on the home page of our website at www.100milefreepress.net. Just click on the “click here for more info” button to “Find out about the exciting launch of a Jr. B Hockey team.”
