Amarillo, TX – The Amarillo Wranglers defeated the Oklahoma Warriors 5-3 at the Budweiser Bull Pen on Friday night to improve to 6-4-1 on the season.
This was the first meeting of the season between the Wranglers and the Warriors, with Oklahoma carrying a record of 8-3-1 into the contest. Amarillo turned to Connor McDonough in net, while Oklahoma went with Daniel Duris.
Amarillo’s Ben Ivey opened the scoring with 5:31 remaining in the first period, with Jack McDonald and Nolan Gagnon picking up the assists. Ivey was able to move into the high slot and fire a shot past Duris to give the Wranglers a 1-0 lead. Shots were 13 to 10 in favor of the Wranglers heading into the first intermission.
Connor McNaughton added to the Wranglers’ lead with 10:21 to go in the second period when he tipped in a Trey Williams shot on the power play for his third goal of the season. Kyle Demarco notched an assist on the goal. The Warriors responded with a power play goal from Kaden Nelson with 6:24 remaining in the second frame to make it 2-1. Max Dronen and Drew Sutton picked up assists on Oklahoma’s first goal of the evening. After 40 minutes of play, the Wranglers led 2-1.
In the early stages of the third period, Amarillo restored its two-goal lead thanks to Roman Zap’s second goal of the season. Alex Papaspyropoulos was able to steal the puck away from the Warriors at the Oklahoma blue line and find Zap cross-crease for the goal. 8:10 into the third, the Warriors’ Riley Brueck scored from Carlile and Elliott to make it 3-2 and once again, bring the Warriors within one. Then with 6:04 remaining in regulation, Oklahoma’s Drew Sutton scored to tie the game up at three. It looked like the Wranglers were destined for another OT game until Roman Zap scored his second of the game to put the Wranglers up ahead with 38.5 seconds to go. The initial shot was taken by Nolan Gagnon and was tipped in by Zap. Just 8 seconds later, Connor McNaughton scored his second of the game off of a shot from a Ben Ivey faceoff win to ice the game and make it 5-3.
Connor McDonough stopped 25 of 28 shots faced in the win. McNaughton and Zap each scored two goals. Ben Ivey had a goal and an assist. Nolan Gagnon recorded two assists.
With the win, the Wranglers move to 6-4-1 on the season and now have 2 points in the Hoser Cup standings. The Wranglers will look to continue their winning streak tomorrow when they take on the Warriors at the Budweiser Bull Pen. Puck drop will be at 7:15. You can get your tickets at panhandletickets.com or catch all the action on NAHLTV.