Head coach/general manager Doug Rogers and his staff were busy making final cuts to the 100 Mile House Wranglers roster on Thursday (Sept. 12) afternoon, following a 7-2 victory in the squad's third and final pre-season game at home against the Kamloops Storm on Wednesday (Sept. 11).
The Wranglers went 2-1 in Kootenay International Junior Hockey League exhibition play ahead of their inaugural season opener in Golden against the Rockets on Friday (Sept. 13).
Considering lineups are varying and incomplete, Rogers says he doesn't put a lot of stock in the pre-season. However, he likes the work ethic he's seeing from his players so far, but adds they're taking too many penalties.
“I'm not overly impressed with where our discipline is at. That will take some work over the first week or two of the season to get that under control.
"But, for a first-year club, I like where we're at. We're going to see how everything plays out.”
The Wranglers named one part of their roster on Thursday.
“We've solidified our goalie situation,” Rogers says.
“It'll be Ben Eddolls (from Yorktown, New York) and Kristian Stead (from Merritt). We released Max Polini (from Calgary) last night.”
Although Kamloops opened up the scoring midway through the first period Wednesday night, the Wranglers notched four in the second frame, taking a solid 4-1 lead going into the third before adding three more. The Storm popped one in the third stanza.
William Orrey scored a hat trick for 100 Mile House, while Lane Vande Wetering added two, and Jaiden Ward and Derek Schneider each added one. Assists went to Robert Orrey, Luke Santerno (2), Cole Zimmerman, Tyson Levesque and Ken Nordstrom.