Albuquerque, NM – The New Mexico Ice Wolves defeated the Amarillo Wranglers 4-0 on Friday night at Outpost Ice Arenas. Jackson Fuller recorded a 31 save shutout for the Ice Wolves in the victory.
The Wranglers traveled to Albuquerque for the first time this season on Friday for a two game set with the Ice Wolves. New Mexico had won the prior two meetings in Amarillo in January. The Wranglers started goaltender Matt Schoephoerster, while the Ice Wolves went with the reigning NAHL goaltender of the month in Jackson Fuller.
The first period included some back and forth action, but on the stat sheet was largely uneventful. The opening frame ended scoreless and no penalties were called. New Mexico outshot Amarillo 9-8 in the first period, as the Ice Wolves hit the post twice in the opening frame.
The stat sheet began to fill up in the second period as the intensity ramped up. The Ice Wolves had a power play chance in the opening four minutes of the period, but the Wranglers were able to successfully kill it off. Shortly after the kill, the Wranglers went back to the box on a tripping call putting New Mexico on the man advantage again. The Ice Wolves were able to convert on this opportunity, as a shot from Sean Smith was deflected by Sean Gibbons into the back of the net to give the Ice Wolves a 1-0 lead with 13:43 left in the second period. With 10:41 left in the middle frame, the Wranglers got their first chance on the power play, but came up empty handed. Later on in the period Amarillo went back on the penalty kill getting their second successful kill of the night to keep in a 1-0 game through 40 minutes. Both teams took 9 shots on goal in the second period.
The Wranglers upped the urgency and intensity in the third period in an effort to solve Jackson Fuller. Amarillo was doing a good job of working the puck around in the offensive zone creating chances to put the puck on net, including a chance on the power play, but it all came to a halt late in the third period when the Wranglers got called for a slashing penalty putting New Mexico on the power play. On that same sequence the bench was assessed a minor penalty making it a 5 on 3 Ice Wolves advantage. New Mexico made the most of the opportunity, scoring on the 5 on 3 with 5:49 left in regulation with a goal from Toivo Laaksonen to make it 2-0. They then made it a 3-0 game with a goal on the ensuing 5 on 4 power play off of a score from Andrew Earl with 4:43 left on the game clock. The Wranglers had some late power play chances to close out regulation as they tried to break the shutout, but an empty net goal from Earl in the final minute of regulation put the game to rest, and the Ice Wolves won 4-0.
Schoephoerster played well in the loss, stopping 29/32 and being named the game’s second star. Amarillo went 0/4 on the power play and 3/6 on the penalty kill, and will look to bounce back on Saturday night in the season series finale. Puck drop is set for 7:30 CST, fans can watch live on NATV or listen in on the Wranglers YouTube channel.