The 100 Mile House Wranglers played trick-or-treat when the Kamloops Storm visited on the night before Halloween (Oct. 30).
They tricked their Doug Birks Division rivals into under-estimating the Wranglers desire to beat the division leaders, and at the same time, they treated the 459 fans – many in Halloween costumes – to a 3-0 shutout victory, thanks to a great team effort and outstanding goaltending by Nathan Warren.
General manager/coach Doug Rogers was extremely pleased with the effort of his team, which is in its inaugural Kootenay International Junior Hockey League season.
“Nathan Warren was brilliant in goal stopping all 37 shots from the Kamloops Storm. Many of his saves fall into the spectacular category.
“Our work ethic tonight was also outstanding. We won a lot of one-on-one battles, which is key in any game.”
Tyson Lesvesque opened the scoring at 13:13 of the second period on assists by Jordan Low and Darcy Flaherty.
Jayden Syrota (Michael Lynch, Luke Santerno) doubled the Wranglers lead at 15:06 of the third stanza with a power play marker.
Brady Ward (Levesque, Kevin Raimundo) closed out the scoring with an empty netter with four ticks left on the scoreboard clock.
The Storm went 0-5 on the man advantage, while the Wranglers scored once on five power plays.
Noting it’s all about team play, Rogers praised several players for picking up their games.
“I thought the veteran line of Brady Ward, Kevin Raimundo and Darcy Flaherty played very well, as did the line of newly acquired Donovan Law with Rob and Will Orrey.
“On defence, Tyson Levesque's game came back to where we expect it to be. He also had a very strong game tonight.”
Rogers says the team has been working hard on the system he wants them to play, as well as their defensive coverage.
“We have been taking steps forward and this can be displayed in the number of shots we have allowed Kamloops.
“In game 1, they had 63 shots on us. In game 2, they had 52 shots on our goal. Tonight, they had 37 shots.
“We have continued to get better over the past two weeks and Nathan [Warren], who has played all three of these games, has continued to play great, as he sees fewer and fewer shots.
“I would like to us give up less than 35 shots a game and we will continue to work at this.”
Tonight (Nov. 1), the Wranglers are in Kamloops for the rematch and the 100 Mile House squad will be looking for the victory that would put them at .500 in league play.