The 100 Mile House Wranglers split a pair of home games against the Revelstoke Grizzlies on Oct. 28-29.
Despite falling behind 2-1 at the second intermission on Friday, the Wranglers stormed back with a pair of power-play goals in the third period.
The home-town lads outshot the Grizzlies 30-20 in a game that featured good back-and-forth action much to the delight of the 532 fans in attendance.
Wranglers’ game star of the game, Alex Meeker, potted a pair of goals, including the winner, and Colton Thomas tucked in the game-tying marker.
Clay Stevenson recorded the victory between the pipes for the home team.
Coach/general manager Dale Hladun says the Wranglers played smart hockey and stayed out of the penalty box.
“It was a good end-to-end game, and we had to learn how to play without the puck and shut them down. I thought our physical game was pretty decent for playing a big team.”
Wranglers 5 Revelstoke 8
Saturday night’s game was a chippy affair and the parade to the sin bin started less than a minute into the contest.
Power-play markers played a big role in the Wranglers’ scoring as four of its five goals came with the man-advantage. The 100 Mile House squad scored on four of 11 opportunities, while the visitors notched three of 13 power-play chances.
Revelstoke has a big team and they used their size to their advantage when they crashed the net and the boards.
Rob Raju popped a pair of goals for the Wranglers, while Grizzlies captain Tyler Chavez Leech scored a hat trick.
Hladun says he thought the Wranglers started off pretty strong, but he gives kudos to the Grizzlies who played a really good game.
“But once the pendulum swung against us with the [penalty] calls … I thought our guys were being babies about it a little bit….”
After the game, Hladun says he talked to a few of the players and told them they have to play through these situations and not lose their composure and try to retaliate for the hits Revelstoke players were throwing around.
The Wranglers are hosting the Princeton Posse on Nov. 4 at 7 p.m., and the Grizzlies are back in town on Sunday (Nov. 6) with the puck dropping at 2 p.m.
