Blaine, MN – The Northeast Generals defeated the Amarillo Wranglers 4-3 on Friday at the 2023 NAHL Showcase to hand Amarillo its first loss of the season.
The Wranglers were 2-0 coming into the game. Returning goaltender Luca Ganz made his first appearance of the season getting the start in net for the Wranglers. The Generals entered with a 3-1 record and turned to Marks Slavinskis-Repe in net. Slavinskis-Repe entered the contest with a 0-1 record, a 3.24 GAA, and a .906 save percentage.
In what looked like what would end up being a scoreless first period, Nolan Gagnon fired a shot on goal to beat Slavinskis-Repe with 30 seconds remaining in the period and make it 1-0 Amarillo. The goal is Gagnon’s first with the Wranglers and his first in the NAHL.
Northeast struck back in the second period when Thomas Klochkov put home his second goal of the season to make it 1-1. Ryan Remick and Bryceon Lago got the assists. On the power play, Luke Morris redirected a slap pass from Roman Zap to give the Wranglers a 2-1 lead. The goal was Morris’ first of the season, assisted by Zap and Papaspyropoulos 10:17 into the second. Two minutes and three seconds later the Generals stormed back to tie the game at two apiece with an unassisted goal from Tyler Ramm. Northeast later took a 3-2 lead with 45 seconds remaining in the second period with Thomas Klochkov’s second goal of the afternoon. Will Reardon and Sixten Jennersjo picked up assists on the go-ahead goal.
In the third period Tyler Ramm’s second goal of the game added to the Generals’ lead 9:57 into the period with assists coming from Andrew DellaDonna and Frank D’Ancona. The Wranglers fought back to make it 4-3 with 5:48 remaining in the third with Jack Ivey’s third goal of the season from Jack McDonald and Grayson Gerhard. Gerhard picked up his first NAHL point with the assist. The Wranglers fought until the last second to try and tie the game but were unable to sneak another goal past Slavinskis-Repe.
The Wranglers penalty kill unit went a perfect 5/5 in the loss. Amarillo put up 36 shots on goal forcing Slavinskis-Repe to have a busy afternoon. With the loss, the Wranglers fell to 2-1 on the season with one more game remaining at the NAHL Showcase before heading back home for the home opener on September 29th vs. Corpus Christi.
The Wranglers will be back in action on Saturday at 11:45 AM against the Johnstown Tomahawks to wrap up the 2023 NAHL Showcase. Catch all the action on NAHLTV.