The 100 Mile House Wranglers have had better road trips.
The Junior B hockey club went 1-1, which isn’t bad. The worst part of the trip was the team bus breaking down after a game in Osoyoos on Nov. 30.
They were still some 400 kilometres from home and spent the night stranded on the side of a road south of Penticton, nine hours in total before a charter bus was available the next morning.
Defenceman Jordan Low says the guys made the best of it. They gathered at the back, told funny stories and talked about girls, and everyone seemed to catch some shuteye around 4 a.m., he explains.
Then they unloaded their gear from one bus and into a new bus when it arrived at 8 a.m., and hit McDonald’s in time for breakfast.
“That kind of made everything better,” Low says with a laugh. “It’s a good story we can hold on to.”
Hours before the team’s bus broke down, the puck dropped for a Wranglers and Osoyoos Coyotes matchup at the Sun Bowl Arena.
Brady Ward scored first for 100 Mile House and the Wranglers took a 1-0 lead into the second period. That’s where, well, the Wranglers penalty killing started to break down.
Osoyoos scored two goals on the power play and four total in the middle frame, while Connor Sloan notched one more for the Wranglers.
The Coyotes added a power play goal in the third.
The final score was 5-2 for Osoyoos.
Although he was replaced by Nathan Warren midway through the Osoyoos game, goalie Kristian Stead received a lot of the credit for a 4-3 win over the Princeton Posse on Nov. 29.
Stead made 32 saves on 35 shots, while the Wranglers tallied 16 shots in total, with goals by Lane Van de Wetering (2), Low and Sloan.
“We did not have a great performance in Princeton, but we got just enough scoring and some great goaltending from Stead,” says coach/general manager Doug Rogers. “Anytime you can get two points on the road, it is a good thing.”
The Chase Heat were in 100 Mile House on Nov. 27 and beat the Wranglers 4-2.
Low, 17, is one of the newest additions to the Wranglers roster. Even with his short time on the team, and only just past the season’s midway point, he says he notices games are getting more intense, especially with divisional teams like Chase and Kamloops.
The Wranglers (13-12-0-4) are tied for second place in the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League’s Doug Birks Division with 30 points, along with Chase, which has a game in hand. The Sicamous Eagles are not far behind with 24 points. Kamloops leads the division with 46.
“We really want to get that second spot. It will set us up better for playoffs,” says Low.
He also talks about as a midget player in Prince George first hearing of the new Wranglers hockey club, currently playing its inaugural season in the KIJHL.
“I didn’t think it was going to be very successful. But, I think Doug [Rogers] put a good team together and we’re doing pretty good for a team that’s new to the KIJHL.
“I think we can go as far as we want to go. We beat all these teams that are the top teams. We know they’re beatable.”
Next, the Wranglers have four home games at the South Cariboo Rec. Centre – Dec. 6 against Columbia Valley Rockies, Dec. 7 and 8 against the Revelstoke Grizzlies and Dec. 13 against Kamloops.
