Amarillo, TX – The Oklahoma Warriors defeated the Amarillo Wranglers by the final score of 4-2 at the Budweiser Bull Pen on Friday night.
Amarillo returned home from a split in Corpus Christi to meet the Oklahoma Warriors for the first game of a two-game set at the Budweiser Bull Pen. Both teams have been hot as of late, as both squads were 7-2-0-1 in their last 10 games entering the matchup. The game also featured the reigning goaltender of the month in Oklahoma’s Daniel Duris and the reigning defenseman of the month in Amarillo’s Nolan Gagnon. Connor McDonough started in goal for Amarillo, while Duris got the nod for Oklahoma.
The Warriors opened the scoring 9:28 into the first period when they fired a flurry of shots on McDonough in transition and Max Dronen pounced on the rebound to make it 1-0 Warriors. Louie Kamienski and Dominic Elliot were credited with the assists. Amarillo responded with 3:32 to go in the period with a power play goal from Luke Morris to tie it 1-1. McNaughton fed a pass from corner to corner to Topi Puikkonen who ripped a shot off the pad of Duris to an open Morris in the slot. After 20 minutes of play, the game was tied 1-1 with Oklahoma outshooting Amarillo 13-9.
Oklahoma retook the lead at 2-1 just 3:10 into the period with a goal from Josh Belz, who fired a sneaky shot from the far circle to beat McDonough. 7:27 into the second, newly acquired forward Anthony Cafarelli scored for the Warriors to extend their lead to 3-1 from Landon Fleming and Kamienski. The Wranglers cut the deficit to just one when Grayson Gerhard made an excellent play in transition to start a breakout and fire a shot off the pad of Duris to a streaking Jacob Miller for the score. Miller cashed in on the rebound for his second goal of the season to make it 3-2. However, Oklahoma would score the final goal of the second period, and the game, on the powerplay with 6:22 to settle the score at 4-2. Some precise passing by Oklahoma’s top scorers resulted in Kaden Nelson’s 19th goal of the season from Drew Sutton and Max Dronen. Despite the Wranglers outshooting the Warriors 22-17 in the second period, it was the Warriors who held the lead at 4-2 heading into the second intermission.
There was no scoring in the third period and the Warriors won 4-2. The Wranglers ended the game 4/5 on the penalty kill. The shot count ended up being tied 39-39. The Wranglers will look to bounce back and get revenge tomorrow night in the final game of the set, with puck drop set for 7:15 PM. It’s Pucks and Paws Night, where dogs are welcome to attend and animals will be up for adoption on the concourse. The first annual Pooch on the Pond pet beauty contest will take place during the first intermission. You can get your tickets at panhandletickets.com.