The Parkland Rangers find themselves in seventh place in the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League after a busy week, which began with a 7-5 loss to the Yellowhead Chiefs, Jan. 7, in Dauphin.
Grady McNish and Nolan Kozak each scored twice and Colby Asselstine, Riley Swereda and Winston Lepp added singles.
Cole Lelond made 30 saves to earn the win in goal.
Dayson Martin scored twice for Parkland, while Forest Karlson, Ryzlie Nepinak and Landyn Garton had one each.
Kyle Pelletier made 21 saves in the loss.
On Wednesday, the Brandon Wheat Kings scored three goals in the final four minutes to skate away with a 4-1 win over the Rangers.
Reid Nicol with two, Jonah Lemoine and Roan Michalchuk scored for Brandon, while Martin replied for Parkland.
Brady Low made 19 saves to pick up the win, while Piet Mierau stopped 43 shots in the loss.
On Saturday in Winnipeg, Ethan Saari’s second goal of the game, 2:39 into overtime lifted the Winnipeg Thrashers to a 4-3 win over the Rangers.
Ed Saly and Rydon Duchon had Winnipeg’s other goals, while Liam Chartrand, Quentin Fisk and Benjamin Poole replied for the Rangers.
Tate Barnaby earned the win with 33 saves, while Mierau took the loss after stopping 37 shots.
On Sunday, Ryder Gardner scored 45 seconds into overtime giving the Rangers a 3-2 win over the Interlake Lightning in Teulon.
Brayden Budolowski staked the Rangers to a 1-0 lead in the first period and Interlake took the lead in the third period on goals from James Franklin and Ryder Kirk.
But Cade Legaarden’s shorthanded goal with 42 seconds left sent the game to overtime, setting the stage for Gardner’s heroics.
Mierau finished with 49 saves, while Interlake’s Dylan McFadyen made 43 stops.
Rangers head coach Tom White said the team didn’t come out as strong as they wanted to against Winnipeg, which only dressed 15 skaters, two of whom were APs.
“I don’t know if that had a factor to play into it. We just didn’t play to what we’re capable of. Fortunately, we got a point out of it. But it should have been a one-sided game in favour of us,” he said.
Sunday, White said, was an exciting game to watch.
“We played very well. And we never quit. We had a 1-0 lead for quite a while. They tied it and then went ahead on the third. And we took a late penalty with just under two minutes left,” he said.
“We had a set play on the faceoff in our zone and we got the puck in their zone, pulled Piet and managed to tie it up.”
This weekend, the Rangers will host the Winnipeg Bruins, Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
