The Parkland Rangers know how to be a good team. This past weekend, they learned what it takes to be a great team in the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League.
After Quenton Fisk’s league-leading 15th goal of the season lifted the Rangers to a 4-3 overtime victory over the Pembina Valley Hawks, Friday, the Rangers faced the Winnipeg Wild, one of the best teams in the league year after year.
Parkland kept it close through two periods on Saturday, trailing 2-0 entering the final period.
That’s when Winnipeg turned on the jets, scoring five times in what turned into a 7-0 rout, with only 14 skaters dressed.
On Sunday, with both teams dressing just 13 skaters each, Winnipeg held a 3-0 lead after the first period, but the Rangers responded with two in the middle frame. And just like the night before, Winnipeg pulled away again in the third period in a 7-2 win.
Rangers head coach Josh Tripp said the team didn’t quite get the start they wanted.
“We found some heart, found some effort and got the job done. That’s what good teams do. They find a way even when we’re not at our best,” he said.
The games against Winnipeg were a good test, Tripp said, to see how the Rangers compare.
“I think we got a little ahead ourselves with how well we’ve been doing. It was probably a good wakeup call. That’s how we have to play,” he said.
“They move the puck quick and skated hard and forechecked hard and backchecked hard and it’s good for our players to see that. they’ve been one of the top teams for years, and that’s what you have to do if you want to be a top team,”
Tripp hopes the Rangers can pick up what the Wild did to be successful.
“And we did it at times, too, and we played them hard when we were doing it. So we’ll watch video and we’ll see those little things that they did that, at times, we didn’t and that’s what cost us the games,” he said.
The Rangers were hit with the injury bug, which tends to happen over the course of the season.
Even though they had five players out of Sunday’s lineup, it gives other players a chance for a bigger role.
“You’re always going to have guys getting injured, so we’ll battle through it. We had some guys tonight that they got more ice than they normally would and it’s good to see what they bring when they get that opportunity,” Tripp said.
Landyn Garton was a good example of a player taking advantage of a bigger role as he scored his first goal of the season on Sunday.
The Rangers enter an easier part of their schedule with only one game over the next couple of weeks. That will be a road game, Wednesday in Souris against the Southwest Cougars at 8 p.m.
Parkland enters the week in fifth place with a 9-5-0-0 record, trailing the first-place Winnipeg Bruins by three points, with the Cougars, Wild and Brandon Wheat Kings in between.
