The Wranglers lost to the Tri-City Titans 1-6. Only the goal by Paul Blase (assisted by McCormack) in the 3rd period kept the Wranglers from being shut out. From what I could tell from the broadcast was that the Titans kept the game in the Wranglers zone. The Titans had a strong fore-check keeping the Wrangler "D" busy without a lot of help from the forwards. 48 shots on goal in the game by the Titans proved it. Again, from the limited announcing it sounded that both teams could not hold on to the puck making turnovers a consistent problem in the neutral zone. Several times I heard "the pass was intercepted" or "a soft pass" or "pass to where nobody was home." These indicate to me the usual problem of poor passing. But, I wasn't there so I cannot say that poor passing was a problem.
I was not surprised that Christian Kramer-Johnson was pulled at the end of the second period and replaced with Jared Blanton for the 3rd period. "CKJ" faced 41 shots in two periods but let in 5 goals. The announcer said of "CKJ" during the 2nd period, "The Wrangler goalie is standing on his head stopping shots. If not, the score would be a lot higher." After last night his states are: GAA 4.40 and Save % 0.899. These are still very respectable stats for a goalie. Sure, you would like that GAA to be lower, but you try harder next game. Blanton did a good job in relief, stopping what sounded like some tough shots on goal made by the Titans. He faced 7 shots and unfortunately let 1 go in. Blanton's stats are: GAA 6.33 and Save % 0.895.
What hurt the Wranglers the most were the 25 shots made by the Titans in the 2nd period. That's a lot of shots. Listening to the broadcast it seemed like the announcer was always saying, "Shot, rebound, another shot, rebound, another shot." Also I heard, "The Titans are in the corner battling for the puck with a Wrangler; the Titans came away with the puck." I recognize I'm listening to the home announcer, but it sounded like we lost a lot of corner battles. As I said in an earlier post, if you want to win the game you've got to control the puck. The Titans making 48 shots doesn't sound like the Wranglers controlled the puck all too often.
What I did like to hear was that the Wranglers were making shots on goal. Last night the Wranglers had a total of 28 shots (11-8-9). Not bad, but we need and want more. Several times I heard, "#24 Blase comes in makes the shot" or "#10 shoots" (the announcer had a hard time pronouncing Aaron's name 'Riemersma' so he just said #10), or "Long takes aim and shoots." I heard a lot of Wrangler player names and numbers making shots on the Titans. Unfortunately for the Wranglers, the Titan's goalie Gilmore was having a good game. Keep up shooting the puck on net boys.
Last time we played the Titans on Oct. 3 we lost the first game by 5 goals - 2-7, but came back the next night for a win 5-4. Let's hope history repeats itself and we can do that again. Let's win tonight's game. I'll be sitting by the "old time radio" er... laptop computer, listening to the game. "GO WRANGLERS!"
