Oklahoma City, OK – The Oklahoma Warriors defeated the Amarillo Wranglers 4-1 on Sunday Night at Blazers Ice Centre in the final meeting between the two teams in the regular season. After playing eight games against one another this season, the Wranglers and Warriors split the season series with each side winning four games.
For both teams, it was their third game in three days, and both clubs were coming off of an overtime loss on Friday and a shutout loss on Saturday. Amarillo started goaltender Connor McDonough between the pipes for the eleventh straight game, while the Warriors turned to Daniel Duris in net after starting Owen Bartoszkiewicz on Saturday.
It did not take long for the game’s first goal to be scored, as Oklahoma’s Connor Smith found the back of the net just 1:01 into the first period. Moving in transition, Smith and Geno McEnery were able to string together a couple of passes before Smith took a shot from the slot to score and make it 1-0 Warriors. The Wranglers outshot the Warriors in the first period 11-9 and had some good scoring chances but were unable to solve Duris in the first frame.
The second period opened with 4 on 4 play but neither team scored on it. Shortly after, Oklahoma went on the power play and scored 4:40 into the second period with a goal from William Ahlrik to go up 2-0. There was no more scoring in the second period although the Wranglers did have over a minute of time on a 5 on 3 man advantage but couldn’t convert. Amarillo had some good chances on goal but Duris held firm. Despite being down, the Wranglers outshot the Warriors 15-11 in the second and had the advantage in the shot count 26-20 after the conclusion of the second period.
The Wranglers were able to break through and put the puck past Duris with 10:42 left in the third period for their first score and to cut the Warriors’ lead to 2-1. Topi Puikkonen took a shot from the high slot to beat Duris top shelf and get the Wranglers on the board. Morley Phillips got the lone assist on Puikkonen’s 22nd goal of the year. The Wranglers were pushing to tie the game late in the third, but a pair of penalties ended up ending the Wranglers’ comeback bid as Oklahoma scored twice on the power play in the final five minutes of the game. Anthony Cafarelli scored with 4:34 remaining and Branko Vukas with 1:16 to go to settle the score at 4-1. Amarillo outshot Oklahoma 31-29 in the loss.
The Wranglers and Warriors end the season series with both teams winning four out of the eight games. With the loss, Amarillo fell to 26-16-6-2 on the year and now has ten games remaining in the regular season. The Wranglers will have some time to rest before hitting the ice next on March 8th and 9th in Shreveport to take on the Mudbugs. You can watch those games on NAHLTV or listen in for free on the Wranglers YouTube channel. Make sure you are following the Wranglers on Facebook, Tiktok, X, Instagram, and YouTube, to stay up to date with upcoming promotions and Wranglers content.