The 100 Mile House Wranglers had a busy weekend, taking home one loss and two wins in a jam-packed weekend, with only two games to go before the playoffs.
Loss to Chase 3-2 in back and forth game
In their last bid for the conference title, the 100 Mile Wranglers played a tight game against conference leaders, the Chase Heat in Chase on Feb. 10.
"It was very back and forth. I thought our kids did a good job killing penalties because they've got a strong power play. Both teams came into that game wanting to win it," says Wranglers head coach Dale Hladun.
Chase started the game strong, taking the lead at 2:14 late in the first period. A second conversion by the Heat at the start of the second period galvanized the 100 Mile House boys to action.
Ryan Friesen responded with an unassisted goal at 16:16, scoring the Wranglers' first of the evening.
Stephen Egan (Kolby Page) tied the game to end the second period, scoring a short-handed goal with 0:26 left on the clock.
Chase snuck a final goal against 100 Mile House at 14:48 to take back their lead and anchor their place as conference champions.
Chase's goalie, Nick Bruyere, kept the Wranglers shut out for the third period, blocking a total of 50 shots by 100 Mile House.
"Their goaltender is one of the best in the league and he did a great job against us. For us to only get two goals that shows you that he did a really good job," says Hladun.
The Wranglers had a total of 52 shots on net, to the Heat's 40.
"I thought all our kids came to play and when we are playing a team like that — that is kind of the arch rival. It comes down to a few bounces. I thought late in the game we got a little lackadaisical in our end and they certainly countered on it," says Hladun.
Two wins against Sicamous Eagles
The Wranglers played two games against the Sicamous Eagles at home Feb. 11 and 12.
"It was kind of a tale of two teams," says Hladun. "Sicamous, I thought on Saturday they played well. They only had a lapse in their game for a period of about 10 minutes where we scored a flurry of goals. We didn't score in the third and I thought Sicamous worked pretty hard against us in the third, but the next day the momentum was with our kids."
100 Mile House took the lead early with points from Colton Thomas (Egan, Friesen) at 15:26, Travis Gook (unassisted) at 13:08 and a power point goal by Sam Bosek (Nick Nordstrom, Rob Raju).
The second period saw back and forth play between both teams, with goals by James Gordon at 17:00 and Raju (Gordon, Bosek) at 12:24 both followed by power play goals on the part of the Eagles.
Neither team managed to sneak anything past the goaltenders in the third period, finishing the game 5-2 for the Wranglers.
The Wranglers beat Sicamous the next day 12-1 in a blowout that saw goals in the first period by Liam Dodd (Gordon, Riley Coish), Justin Bond (Garret Hilton, Nick McCabe), Frazer Dodd (Thomas, Jaydon Gilding) and Wesley Howerton (Kade Holodniuk).
Sicamous limited the Wranglers to only one score in the second period. Bosek (Raju, Coish) skated his way to a goal, increasing 100 Mile's lead to four.
The third period saw the Wranglers increase their lead with goals from Raju (Dodd, Coish); Friesen (Coish, Nordstrom); Laim Dodd (Friesen, Coish), Bond (Gilding, McCabe), Hilton (Bond, McCabe); Nordstrom (unassisted); Bosek (Todd Bredo); and a power play goal by McCabe (Page, Gilding).
"It was good to see some of the other kids get more ice time," says Hladun. Rookie Liam Dodd scored two points and an assist during the game, earning himself three points and a game star. Riley Coish earned himself four points with four assists during the second game against Sicamous.
"He works so hard, so to get some points — I'm really happy for Riley," says Hladun.
Onward to playoffs
The Wranglers will play their last two games of the season Feb. 17 and 18, with their last game of the season against Chase at home on Feb. 18.
"I think offensively we're a dangerous club if we can show up on our end" says Hladun." This weekend with us getting 17 goals in two games against Sicamous and with our ability to get 60 shots on net against Chase shows that we're pretty hungry on the offensive end, so I feel we're a threat to go deep in the playoffs."
Hladun says the team will be working on their discipline and structure during the last two regular season games.
"Once we all know each other's duties better it's an easier game to play. We've got a lot of hungry players ... we've got guys that go hard, but that will get you through a game. That will get you even through a season, but it has to get you through a series now and playoffs are way different than regular season."
The Wranglers will face off against the Kamloops Storm during the first round of playoffs, starting the series at home on Feb. 24 and 25.