The 100 Mile House Wranglers treated their hometown fans to some great Junior B hockey action, as they skated to two come-from-behind victories on Jan. 29-30
After giving up two goals – one in the second and another at the beginning of the third – the Wranglers stormed back with three unanswered goals to nip the North Okanagan Knights 3-2 in overtime, Jan. 29.
Alex Meeker potted a goal on assists from Austin Turner and Cole Zimmerman at 9:01 of the third period and that started the comeback.
The momentum definitely shifted two minutes later when Brett Harris found the back of the net, with assists going to Justin Bond and Alex Hanson, and knotted the score two apiece.
The game was spirited as the teams combined for 54 minutes in penalties, including a 10-minute misconduct to each squad.
However, the penalty that really hurt came in the overtime period when Knight Ryan Moon picked up two for tripping at 4:14.
That allowed to D-men to combine for the game winner at 2:41 when Travis Rock scored the overtime winner with the assist going to Michael Lynch.
Lynch, a forward who has been moved to defense because the injury bug has hit the Wranglers blue line corps, was also named the star of the game for the hometown boys.
Adam Derochie had a great game between the pipes stopping 25 of the Knight’s 27 shots. The Wranglers fired 35 shots at North Okanagan goalie Daniel Paul.
Wranglers knock off Eagles
Although the Sicamous Eagles are sitting in last place in the Doug Birks Division of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League, they upped their game when they visited the Wranglers on Jan. 30.
This was another spirited contest that featured a quick pace, crunching hits and some flashy stick handling.
The players were up and down the ice in the first stanza with both teams getting some glorious scoring changes only to be stymied by Derochie in the Wranglers net and Michael Lenko between the pipes for Sicamous.
The Eagles were the first to light up the scoreboard at 12:48 of the second period when Jaden Hay had an easy tap in from the side of the net during an extended melee in front of Derochie.
At this point, the Eagles were carrying the play to the hometown boys.
However, when the Wranglers hit the ice for the third frame, there was a notable change in their confidence and their will to win the puck battles.
Turner knotted the score at 15:52 with assists going to Harris and Meeker.
A little over a minute later, Nick McCabe scored the eventual game winner with Ryan Friesen picking the assist.
Ten minutes later, Harris scored the insurance goal on a power play with assists going to Lynch and Zimmerman.
With 1:04 left on the clock, Meeker scored an empty net marker with assists going to Harris and Lynch.
Jaydon Gilding closed out the scoring on a power play goal with 10 ticks on the clock for the 5-1 victory. Assists went to Zimmerman and Stephen Egan.
Coach Dale Hladun says the five-goal outburst in the third period wasn’t the result of some great speech he made during the second-period intermission, but he adds they talked about the game being tight.
“I said fellows this is what playoffs are going to be like. Teams will up their game and there will be a lot of tight games – a lot of overtime and a lot of one-goal victories.
“I said we should be excited this is the type of game we’re facing … we just got to be mentally tough and do the right things.”
He adds they tweaked their forecheck a little bit, but notes the will to win is the dressing room.
“I don’t have to say a lot anymore; the boys want to win. I was pretty impressed with the effort in the third period by everybody.”
Noting the Wranglers are injured on the back end with two starting defencemen out, Hladun says Turner and Lynch, who are a couple of the team’s top forwards, stepped up and played defence all weekend.
“They did a great job back there. Lynch got MVP for both games and he deserved it; he jumped into the play, worked good on the power play and killed penalties. He was huge for us.”
The coach also praised the play of Adam Derochie on the weekend and says it wasn’t a surprise because with Zane Steeves and Derochie, the Wranglers has a great tandem of goalies who work really well together.
“I wanted to make sure Adam recognized how valuable he is for us, and I wanted to make sure he got two games this weekend because he works so hard, doesn’t complain about missing a game here and there, and when it’s his turn, he goes.
“We’re going to need both those goalies down the stretch. Adam was outstanding and he played well in Revelstoke the week before, so it was nice to see but not unexpected.”
The Wranglers are currently in a race for first place against their nemesis the Kamloops Storm, so every game is very important to both squads.
Hladun says his boys have a lot of pride and they really want to win first place.
Looking at the schedule, the coach says Kamloops is going to win its fair share of games, so the Wranglers are going to have to do the same and win the two head-to-head games against the Storm. The first is on Feb. 8 when Wranglers host the Storm, with the puck dropping at 4 p.m. Then on Feb. 19, the Wranglers travel to Kamloops and that could be a really important tilt for the division title.
Hladun says he likes the players’ fitness at this time of the season as compared to last season.
He adds the boys have been working on their conditioning at Action Fitness twice a week and the results have been good.
“I think it’s the one major thing better than last year is our fitness. When you’re in shape … we had injuries, but they’re not as bad as they were last year.”
The coach says the increase in the fitness level will definitely help the players during the playoffs.
“It’s going to be a war in the next few of weeks.”
