Greeley, CO – The Colorado Grit defeated the Amarillo Wranglers 6-5 in a shootout on Sunday at Greeley Ice Haus in the final game of a three-game set. Amarillo picked up 5/6 possible standings points this weekend after winning the first two contests.
Fresh off of his first NAHL start and win, Andrew Peterson got the start between the pipes for the Wranglers. Peterson stopped 18/19 shots on Saturday in the 4-1 victory. Colorado went with Aiden Gariepy in goal, who stopped 14/19 shots on Friday before being pulled.
Colorado’s Wilder Jacober opened the scoring 8:12 into the first period from Jordan Gudridge and George Poirier to make it 1-0 Grit. Amarillo quickly responded two minutes and eighteen seconds after when Topi Puikkonen scored his sixteenth goal of the season on the power play from Alex Papaspyropoulos and Connor McNaughton to tie the game. However, just 23 seconds after the Puikkonen goal, the Grit retook the lead 2-1 off of a goal from Nicholas Capasso. Chris Graves and Noah Grolnic were credited with the assists. The Wranglers responded once again with another goal with 4:58 to go in the first when Morely Phillips put home his first goal of the season to tie the game up 2-2. With 1:08 on the clock, Wilder Jacober scored his second of the game from Brayden Fryfogle and Luke Helgeson to once again give Colorado the lead 3-2. But the Wranglers rallied back with 43 seconds to go in the period to tie the game 3-3 with Jack Ivey’s 20th goal of the season from Ben Ivey and Jack McDonald. Amarillo outshot Colorado 15-10 in the first period.
The scoring continued early on in the second period when Colorado’s Luke Helgeson scored 1:08 into the second frame to give the Grit a 4-3 lead. Moments later, Jack McDonald scored on the power play for the Wranglers to tie the game up 4-4, with assists coming from Jack Ivey and Roman Zap. After each team’s fourth goal a goaltending change was made, and the Wranglers turned to Connor McDonough and the Grit to Jack Erickson. The rest of the period was scoreless as the Wranglers outshot the Grit 26-16 through two periods.
The Grit retook the lead 3:50 into the third period with a goal from Payton Miller to make it a 5-4 game. And with that, came an Amarillo response in the form of Topi Puikkonen power play goal from McNaughton and Jeffers to tie the game up at 5-5. No more scoring occurred in the third period or in overtime, so the game went to a shootout.
The Grit came away with the victory with a 4-3 edge in a six-round shootout. Despite the loss, the Wranglers picked up another standing point to earn 5 out of a possible six points available on the weekend. The Wranglers and Grit will meet again for another three-game set at the Budweiser Bull Pen on January 12th, 13th, and 14th. Friday’s game is Bring a Bud Night where tickets are buy one get one free using this ticket link: Welcome | Bring a Bud 1/12 | Amarillo Hockey Association (sportngin.com). Saturday’s game is Youth Sports Night, followed by Undie Sunday on Sunday.