Greeley, CO – The Amarillo Wranglers defeated the Colorado Grit 7-6 in overtime at Greeley Ice Haus on Friday in the first-ever meeting between the two clubs.
Connor McDonough made his tenth straight start for the Wranglers while Aiden Gariepy started in goal for the Grit. McDonough entered the contest with a record of 15-6-4-1, a 2.37 GAA, a .911 save percentage, and 1 shutout on the season. Colorado looked to snap a six-game losing streak while the Wranglers looked to build off of their 5-3 win on New Year’s Eve against the New Mexico Ice Wolves.
Colorado wasted no time opening the scoring as just 1:40 into the game Payton Miller scored to give the Grit a 1-0 lead. The Wranglers responded by scoring the next three goals of the game. Topi Puikkonen scored on the power play 4:42 into the first to tie it, and Alex Papaspyropoulos scored with 9:58 on the clock to go up 2-1, and then Jack McDonald cashed in on the power play with 5:03 to go to make it 3-1. Late in the first period, Colorado’s Will Hadrick scored to make it 3-2.
The Wranglers opened the scoring in the second period when Jack Ivey scored on the power play 2:29 into the second frame to make it 4-2. Colorado responded with a power play goal from Noah Grolnic about six minutes later to make it a 4-3 game. Connor McNaughton rallied back for the Wranglers and restored Amarillo’s two-goal lead with a goal just eight seconds later. Colorado then scored two goals 18 seconds apart with 9:31 and 9:13 to go in the second period from Grolnic and Landon West. The game was tied 5-5 entering the second intermission.
The Grit retook the lead for the first time since the first period when Marek Thompson scored 6:35 in to boost Colorado up 6-5. Amarillo’s Nolan Gagnon put home a goal for the Wranglers 8:43 into the period to even the score 6-6. Sixty minutes wasn’t enough so the game headed to overtime.
The Wranglers opened overtime with a power play, and early on Jack Ivey drew a penalty to put the Wranglers up to a 5 on 3 man advantage. Noland Gagnon scored the OT winner 19 seconds into overtime to lift the Wranglers to victory 7-6.
The Wranglers will be back in action tomorrow afternoon when they meet the Grit at 4:45 CST at Greeley Ice Haus. You can watch on NATV or listen in on YouTube.