The 100 Mile House Wranglers defeated the Summerland Steam on home ice last Saturday.
The Wranglers’ 3-2 overtime win was doubtlessly a welcome morale booster after a 9-2 loss against the Sicamous Eagles on the road on Friday, Dec. 15. Head coach Dale Hladun said he remains proud of his team’s no-quit mentality despite the fact their efforts don’t always result in victories. He noted that over the last few weeks, a mix of injuries, sickness and suspension has handicapped the team.
“We haven’t had a full lineup of players for practices, let alone games,” Hladun said. “We only had three lines dressed (this week) and I thought they did pretty well under the circumstances. These kids will work to the end.”
On Friday night despite several penalties for roughing, charging and hooking the game started promisingly with the Eagles scoring two goals but 100 Mile House Wrangler Nathan Bohmer scoring a goal of his own.
In the second period, however, in the midst of further penalties on both sides, the Eagles ran away from the Wranglers scoring five unanswered goals. 100 Mile House proved unable to come back in the third period as the Eagles scored another two goals, which the Wrangler’s Carter Boomer answered with a goal of his own.
“Against Sicamous (our loss was due) to a lot of things. First off Sicamous is a good and tough team. We were very shorthanded against them and those stupid penalties… it frustrates me we have the ability to play well and then shoot ourselves in the foot,” Hladun said. “When you’re shorthanded and killing penalties you’re just tiring out the same guys.”
The aftermath of Friday night’s game clearly weighed on the Wranglers at the South Cariboo Rec Centre the next day. The first period proved to be an indecisive one with neither the Wranglers nor the Steam scoring a goal despite several power-play opportunities.
That changed in the second period when the Wranglers scored an early powerplay goal thanks to Ethan Davey. Summerland stayed in the fight however and answered with two goals of their own putting the home team on the back skate.
The Wranglers dug in their heels and while the Steam did their best to hold onto their lead, Wranglers forward Alberto Kelgren was able to tie the game before the end of the third period. Hladun noted that he worked hard in filling the skates of players like Bohmer and Davey, who were both suspended by that point.
In the following overtime period, it was defenceman Kaden Ernst, the Tim Hortons player of the game, who scored the decisive goal much to the delight of the crowd.
“I thought it was outstanding how Kaden played. Between shifts on ice I tired him out because I’d say ‘go to the back end you’ll play defence next shift’ and then next shift I was like ‘come up here now you’re going to play forward,” Hladun said. “Kaden Ernst played so well for us and battled to win that game-winning goal.”
The Wranglers’ final game of the year is on Thursday, Dec. 21 as they face off against the Chase Heat in Chase. Winning this game will be key to keeping the Wranglers’ playoff dreams alive, Hladun said.
“We’re battling Chase for the final playoff spot and right now we’re up by three points. That game is a four-point game, it’s either two points we get or two points they don’t get. We could be up by one point going into the break or we could be up by five,” Hladun said. “We do want some more separation so we can start focusing on playoffs.”
