The 100 Mile House Wranglers are now 3-1 in Keystone Cup play, as they knocked off the Peguis Juniors 9-3 earlier today (April 16) and got by the North Peace Navigators 4-2 last night (April 15).
The 100 Mile House lads have sharpened every aspect of their game after their opening day shutout loss to the Thunder Bay Northern Hawks on April 14.
Now they’re playing hockey the Wrangler way – hitting, skating, blocking shots, scoring, making outstanding saves and using their fitness to beat teams down.
Game 3
North Peace out of Alberta opened the scoring with a five-on-three power-play goal five minutes into the game.
However, the Wranglers responded in the second period with back-to-back power-play markers by (Todd Bredo (Brett Harris, Ryan Friesen) and Justin Bond (Michael Lynch, Harris).
The Navigators evened the score at two apiece with two minutes left in the second stanza, but 100 Mile House came back with Alex Meeker (Harris, Friesen) getting the eventual game-winning goal with 1:25 left in the second.
Wrangler captain Stephen Egan got the lone goal in the third with an unassisted empty-netter.
While the shots were fairly even, the Wranglers scored on two their four power-play opportunities.
North Peace only managed one goal on eight chances, as the Wranglers penalty killing was outstanding again.
Bond was named the first star of the game, and Wrangler goalie Zane Steeves collected another victory, stopping 32 of 34 Navigator shots.
Game 4
100 Mile House product Harris opened the scoring with an unassisted goal at 18:24 of the first period, and the Wrangler never looked back as they hammered the Peguis Juniors 9-3.
Bond (Jaydon Gilding, Friesen) made it 2-0, and Lynch gave the Wranglers a 3-0 lead on an unassisted short-handed marker with four minutes left in the first frame.
Bond (Brady Ward, Nick McCabe) increased the lead to 4-0 five minutes in the second period.
Then Peguis scored three unanswered goals to make things interesting, before Cole Zimmerman (Bredo) stopped the momentum by finding the back of the net on the power play with 3:11 left on the clock.
The third period was all Wranglers as they scored four unanswered goals.
McCabe (Alex Hanson) made it 6-3 for the Wranglers at 14:05, and then four minutes later, he was the trigger man for Hanson and Bond.
Ward (Zimmerman, Egan) notched the 8-3 goal with five minutes left.
Then the big left winger, who scored the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League title-winning goal, scored his second marker of the game unassisted with 2:35 left in the tilt.
The Wranglers outshot Peguis 48-33 and Adam Derochie recorded the victory by stopping 30 of 33 shots.
For the second consecutive game, Bond was named the first star of the game.
Tonight (April 16), the Wranglers go nose-to-nose with the AGI Insurance Quakers, which is a perfect 4-0 in the tourney so far.
Win or lose, these two teams will go head-to-head in the championship final tomorrow (April 17) at 1:30 p.m.
Check out the Keystone Cup website – pay-per-view webcasts available
Assistance sought
The Wranglers have a GoFundMe account online in an effort to get help with the cost of having the Wranglers playing in the Keystone Cup.
They're looking at a $29,000 bill to be challenging for the Western Canada Championship, so any financial help would be appreciated.
If you can help, go to https://www.gofundme.com/pjzaqsrw?utm_source+internal&utm_medium=email&utm_content=cta_button&utm_campaign=upd_n and donate what you can to help the Wranglers on this magical ride in the post season.