The 100 Mile House Wranglers are rolling.
The local Junior B hockey club is one point out of first place in the Doug Birks Division and a top five team in the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League following a three-game winning streak, which included two victories over the division-leading Kamloops Storm.
Zane Steeves and Adam Derochie are two big reasons for the six-point weekend.
“Our two goaltenders have been really giving us a chance to win,” says coach Dale Hladun, whose Wranglers were outshot in all three victories. “I think we have the strongest tandem in the league by far. The confidence we have in both the kids is real high.”
Looking ahead, the Wranglers are preparing for six tough games against division rivals – the Chase Heat and Revelstoke Grizzlies – which the Wranglers, despite leading them in the standings, have yet to beat this season.
Another reason for the Wranglers success last weekend is forward Tyler Povelofskie, who is “hot in the KI” at the moment. The 19-year-old from Williams Lake, who played two seasons of Junior A in the British Columbia Hockey League, with the Vernon Vipers in 2013-14 and the Alberni Valley Bulldogs in 2014-15, has two goals and four assists in the last three games.
The best games are against Kamloops, especially when it’s tied going into the final minutes, he says, and predicts a repeat of last season’s Round 2 playoff series between the two clubs.
“We’re definitely the best in the division. I think it’s going to be a really good series in the [division] finals, us against them.”
The Wranglers are a big and strong team and they like to work hard, Povelofskie adds. That’s what’s going to win them their first division title this year.
“At the end of the day, come playoff time, it’s not necessarily the pretty team that’s going to win. It’s going to be the team that shows up and works the hardest and wants it the most. I think that’s something our team definitely has – the will to the win.”
The Wranglers host the Chase Heat on Dec. 11.
Local talent Cole Zimmerman notched the double-overtime winner in Kamloops on Dec. 6. Tavis Roch and Povelofskie assisted on the play.
Povelofskie, Nick McCabe and Justin Bond also scored goals in the game, while Josh Odelein, Alex Hanson, Brett Harris and Alex Meeker also tallied assists. Steeves made 39 saves.
Derochie turned away 54 shots on his way to winning star of the game for the Wranglers in their 4-1 win in Kelowna on Dec. 5. Stephen Egan, from Kyle Lindstrom and Brady Ward, scored in the first period; the Chiefs evened it 1-1 heading into the second, where Alex Hanson, from Povelofskie, and Liam Cumberbirch, from Harris and Michael Lynch, extended the Wranglers’ lead. Egan, from Kolten Carpenter, found the empty net with 2 minutes 35 seconds remaining.
Cumberbirch won star of the game in the Wranglers’ 5-2 win over the Storm in 100 Mile House on Dec. 4. The Wranglers managed 18 shots, while 100 Mile goalie Steeves made 30 saves in the win.
The teams went back and forth, trading goals in the first period. Lynch, from Harris, and Povelofskie, from McCabe and Hanson, found the back of the net in the first period.
Ryan Friesen, from Kolby Page and Todd Bredo, scored in the second, while Harris, from Roch and Povelofskie, lit the lamp on the power play in the third period and Cumberbirch found the empty net unassisted.
