Amarillo: The Wranglers pick up a point in overtime but come up one shot short in the 5-to-4 loss against the Odessa Jackalopes Friday night.
The Friday contest marked the first of six consecutive home games for Amarillo as they hosted the Odessa Jackalopes. The visitors would open the scoring with a Ryan Kusler goal at 6:23 of the first period. Odessa goalie Alex Proctor would shut the door in the period to secure a one-goal lead for Odessa going into the middle frame.
The Wranglers would get a chance to tie the game with a four-minute power play when Charlie Banquier took a double-minor high-sticking penalty. Amarillo would manufacture a few quality chances on the advantage but could not convert. At the 12 minute mark, the Wranglers would create chaos in front of the Odessa goal when Proctor tried to play a loose puck but collided with Amarillo forward Jayden Price. Proctor would be injured with the contact and could not protect the net as TJ Koufis buried the puck in the open net to tie the game. In goal, Odessa would have to turn to Noah Rupprecht as Alex Proctor would leave the game with an injury.
Amarillo would grab the lead in the final second of the period when Glebs Prohorenkovs walked past the Odessa defenseman and found Kristaps Skrastins, who would score his 20th goal of the season to give the Wranglers a 2-to-1 lead going into the final period.
Just minutes into the period, Dominick Schimizzi would net his 8th goal of the year at the 2:50 mark to give Amarillo a 3-to-1 lead. Under a minute later, Dayne Hoyord would get the goal right back with his 11th of the year to bring the Jackalopes back to within a goal. Later in the period, Logan Cleary would score his 8th goal of the season to regain the two-goal lead for the Wranglers at the 7:16 mark.
Odessa would rattle off two unanswered goals from Ryan Kusler, who scored at the 9:30 mark, and Ryan Kelly, who tied the game at 14:46 of the third period. The Wranglers would be denied late in regulation by Odessa goalie Rupprecht to send the game into overtime.
Odessa would end the game just 38 seconds into overtime when J.R. Perdion beat Max Gutjahr to give the Jackalopes the 5-to-4 overtime victory.
The Wranglers set a new season-high with 52 shots on net through the 65 minutes of play. With the overtime loss, the Wranglers pick up their 38th point of the season and fall to 18-10-1-1. Amarillo will look to get three out of a possible four points with a win Saturday night against the Jackalopes.