The Parkland Rangers played the role of spoiler over the weekend at the expense of the Interlake Lightning.
The Rangers began the week by scoring an 8-5 win over the Yellowhead Chiefs, Tuesday in Dauphin, keeping Yellowhead from moving ahead of the Winnipeg Thrashers and into fifth place.
On Saturday in Dauphin, Parkland beat the Lightning, 3-1, while the Southwest Cougars defeated the Norman North Stars, 7-2. This resulted in the Cougars moving past Interlake into the eighth and final playoff spot.
The Lightning got a measure of revenge on Sunday, beating the Rangers 8-4, while Southwest stayed one point ahead of Interlake with a 6-1 victory over Norman.
Sunday’s loss snapped a four-game winning streak by the Rangers.
Overall, Rangers head coach Tyler Carefoot was pleased with the team’s play in the three games.
“When you start winning games, the expectations change. We won, Tuesday. We found a way to win (Saturday) and then now it’s no more moral victories. You’re disappointed when you’re not winning,” he said, adding he was proud of Kyler Swanton, who was the difference in Saturday’s win with 43 saves.
“Our first period, we were absolutely just flat. No energy whatsoever. I didn’t know if the players even had a pulse,” he said. “But Swanny held us in there. And again, you win a few games and you feel better about yourself and you find ways to grease some one out and we did that (Saturday). I was very pleased with the way Kyler played to give us a chance to win that game and we found a way.”
Carefoot and the Rangers knew Interlake would be desperate on Sunday after getting knocked out of the final playoff spot.
In the end, it was too many unforced errors that cost the Rangers.
Interlake scored 18 seconds into the second period and added another 1:07 later to take a 4-1 lead. And it took them just 29 seconds to find the back of the net in the third.
“You can’t have that. You’ve got to eliminate that. I just think, overall, today we were just too easy to play against. And when you’re playing against a team that’s desperate, we were easy prey and that’s what happened,” Carefoot said.
Carefoot was especially pleased with the play of forward Hayden Seib, who is second in team scoring with 34 points, including 15 goals. He has points in each of the last seven games.
“He’s been consistent all season, just trying to focus on the details,” he said, adding Dru Mushumanski has also shone of late, with seven goals and 22 points in his last 12 games to take over the team scoring lead.
The Rangers end the season with a final road trip to Brandon to take on the Wheat Kings on Wednesday, before hosting Norman, Saturday in Swan River at 7:30 p.m.
Carefoot hopes the team can finish the season strong, noting they are looking at the Brandon contest as their Mount Rushmore game.
“We’re going to treat that game like it’s the championship final. I want to make sure the boys are ready to go. We’re going practice on Tuesday, leading into Brandon. All that I want that night is just energy and just the spirit of being the best that they can be, whatever the result may be,” he said. “Regardless of the result, that will lead us into the weekend against Norman to wrap up the season.”
