100 Mile House Wrangler Justin Bond (Kevin Fillier and Garrett Hilton) capped off a brilliant outing (a goal and three assists) with a game-winning goal with 1:24 left in the third period for a 6-5 victory against the Kelowna Chiefs on Jan. 14.
More than 500 hometown fans were treated to a fast-skating, hard-hitting, high-scoring tilt by two teams that obviously disliked each other, as they traded goals throughout the game.
Kelowna's Joel Scrimbit opened the scoring at 14:57 of the first with the assists going to Ty Dornn and Kolten Carpenter who played on the Wranglers championship team in 2015/16.
Then 1:25 minutes later, James Gordon, who was named the Wranglers star of the game, put on a show as he danced around a couple of Chiefs and tied the score with Bond, who was profiled on the current Who's Hot in the KI (Kootenay International Junior Hockey League) feature, and Ryan Friesen getting the assists.
Thirty-one seconds later, Gordon (Bond, Rob Raju) gave the Wranglers their first lead of the game.
However, Kelowna's Josh Kobelka (Josh Johnston, Scrimbit) tied the score on a power-play marker with the Chiefs crashing the net and screening Wranglers goalie Jakob Severson who made several outstanding and acrobatic saves throughout the game.
The Chiefs took the 3-2 lead at 15:22 of the second stanza on another power-play goal by Ryan Pereverzoff (Brett Witala).
Raju (Bond) picked up a juicy rebound and tucked it into a wide open Chiefs' net to knot the score at threes at 8:45.
That set up a wild-and-woolly third period that had fans sitting on the edge of their seats and the players looking to dominate.
The hits got harder, players stood their ground and tempers flared.
Former teammates Wrangler defenceman Todd Bredo and Carpenter had an altercation and took roughing penalties at 17:56.
While they were in the sin bin, Raju (Gordon) scored his second of the game at 16:47 and gave the Wranglers a 4-3 lead.
At 14:34, Nick McCabe and Chiefs' Tyson Taylor jousted after McCabe's high-sticking infringement and Taylor's unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The Wranglers' forward got a 10-minute misconduct, while Taylor got a game misconduct for his second 10-minute misconduct of the contest.
Kelowna's Witala (Jason Village, Kobelka) tied the score at fours at 13:12, but Wrangler Garrett Hilton (unassisted) restored the one-goal lead 19 seconds later.
At 11:38, Raju and Kelowna's Jaden McNulty were tossed for a scrap.
Bond and Chiefs Landon Gran took slashing and cross-checking penalties respectively.
Chiefs' Village (Witala) knotted the score at fives with 10:51 remaining on the clock.
From there it was a back-and-forth struggle, until Bond got the game-winning marker at 1:24 after being set up by Fillier and Hilton.
The victory helped the Wranglers edge up on the Chase Heat for the Doug Birks Division title, with Chase sitting at 49 and the Wranglers at 46.
The Wranglers will be on the road on Jan. 20 and 21 for tilts against the Revelstoke Grizzlies.
Then they visit the Kamloops Storm on Jan. 27 on the front end of a home-and-home, with Storm rolling into 100 Mile House on Jan. 28. The puck drops at 7 p.m.
All of these games are crucial, as the Wranglers try to capture their second consecutive division title.