After a hometown victory against the Kamloops Storm, the 100 Mile House Wranglers lost three close games.
Last Wednesday, the Wranglers triumphed over the Storm 3-2 in a close action-packed game. The Wranglers took an early two-point lead in the first period before the Storm was able to score a goal in the second. An early third-period goal secured the Wranglers’ win but persistent pressure from Kamloops nearly brought the game into overtime.
In back-to-back games over this past weekend, the Wranglers lost to the North Okanagan Knights 6-3 on Friday, the Chase Heat 4-3 on Saturday and the Grand Forks Border Bruins 5-3 on Sunday.
“Well, if it wasn’t for bad luck, we would have no luck at all,” head coach Dale Hladun said. “We went into this three-game weekend with a very depleted roster. On Friday we dressed only 15 skaters and we had two defencemen play as forwards.”
Hladun said his team played hard despite being at a numerical disadvantage. Going into the third period against the Knights Hladun said they were down 4-1. On a powerplay he pulled the goalie and they were able to score a goal.
As they sought to tie the game Hladun said he pulled the goalie two more times which led to two empty net goals for the Knights. Even though the gamble didn’t pay off, he said he was impressed by the desire his players had to tie the game.
“It was a very good sign of the character of this club,” Hladun said.
Against Chase, Hladun said Royce Watson put in a solid performance in the net and he was impressed by the efforts of Jack Mulder, Ethan Hofstrand and Ty Smoluk who outshot but didn’t outscore the Heat. Unfortunately in the second period, he said, they lost a key player when Kayden Stark’s Achilles tendon was sliced by an opponent’s skate.
Hladun said Stark was taken to the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops. He was operated on early Sunday morning and is recovering from the injury.
On Sunday Hladun said an outbreak of flu that had been brewing in the team became entrenched and many of his players were unable to play. Some of the Wranglers played sick and they were only able to field 14 of their usual 26 players.
“We had to come up with a strategy that would conserve our energy and just try to score off a turnover or on our powerplay. I thought the kids did fantastic in our strategy and we were right in the game to the end,” Hladun said. “All our kids contributed to our push to win, but Jace Myers and Tysen Smith stood out in their efforts.”
Hladun said that while the Wranglers didn’t succeed at winning any games this weekend they did show him how they dealt with adversity. The fact they were willing to compete until the end of each night filled Hladun with pride.
“All things being equal, we are still only three points out of third place in our division, so although we were unable to gain ground, we did not lose any.”
The Wranglers hit the road this weekend to play the Golden Rockets Friday and the Columbia Valley Rockies Saturday. Hladun hopes the team will have recovered from the flu in time but said he plans to bring affiliates to bolster their ranks.
patrick.davies@100milefreepress.net
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