Last night the Wranglers lost to the Totems 2-14. The Totems pretty much at will put up a NorPac scoring demonstration against the Wranglers. While I will say the Wranglers put up a good fight at times showing plenty of determination and hustle, they were no match for the tenacious Totems. Once again the Totems put on the show in the 3rd period making an incredible 9 goals. The Totems know how to hit, they are fast, they have great puck handling skills, and know how to score. What more can I say?The Wranglers tried to mix up the line-ups a bit by putting Grant Long as a center versus on defense, and putting Nik Vaitaitas on as a forward. Heck, they even suited Teilborg, the 3rd goalie and got him on the ice. I can't say if all that shuffling worked. Grant didn't last long on offense because he returned to defense - probably got too frustrated because of the poor passing. Nik stayed the whole game on offense. And, Teilborg put out a very good effort as a forward. But alas, even with all this manipulation the offensive timing of the Wranglers just seemed off. Passes were beyond or behind players, or too soft, or whatever. I surmise these issues exist because the Wranglers are not a fast skating team. So many times the Totems would out skate the Wranglers in the neutral zone catching them or out manuevering them so they could intercept the pass or slow them so the pass went to a Totem. At times you could see the frustration on the faces of the forwards as they came off the ice. The only bright spots in the game offensively were the goals scored by Riermersma (assisted by Summa) in the 2nd period and by Jossie (assisted by Vaitaitas) in the 3rd period. But it just wasn't enough against the very talented and again tenacious Totems.
Another bright spot was the effort the offense put on in the 2nd period. The Wranglers actually out shot the Totems in the 2nd period. Wrangler shots in the 2nd were 13 to the Totems 12. First and 3rd period Wrangler shots were dismal - 5 shots in the 1st, and only 6 in the 3rd for a total of 24 shots for the game. The Totems fired a total of 55 shots in the game (19-12-24). And, their 3rd period shots showed the results with the 9 goals. Blanton just seemed to get tired as the game wore on finally being replaced as a "puck toss" from center ice simply found its way to the back of the net. Anouther game "OUCH!" "CKJ" tried hard but when he dived low, they shot high; again, frustrating, very frustrating.
I thought the Wrangler "D" played as best as could be expected in this blow-out. My opinion is that they do not deserve full responsibility for the goals. They delivered some good hits, made some saves, and got the puck out of the zone. But, one more time... the Totems are so fast, the passing is so precise, their offensive player positioning is so good, they cycle the puck, they are tenacious for the puck, and can almost score at will. The Wrangler "D" could not cover all five of the fast moving Totems. So many times the Totems had odd man rushes - 2 on 1, 3 on 1, or even a 4 on 1, out of the neutral zone and into the Wrangler zone making it very hard to defend. Finally, many times I saw Wranglers putting a body on a Totem, but the Totem player managed to stay on his feet, keep the puck, and make a shot on goal. That had to be frustrating, very frustrating to the Wranglers.
The Wranglers will travel to Bremerton, Washington to meet the Puget Sound Tomahawks for two games this weekend - Friday and Saturday, then quickly travel back to Medford for a Sunday game against River City. Lets hope the Wranglers continue to take these hard lessons into their practice week and make the needed improvements. From what I hear the Wranglers will get a new forward on Tuesday. They'll need him since Abera is out for the Tomahawk games for his Friday night game antics. It also seemed that McCormack got injured in Saturday's game so he might be questionable. Go WRANGLERS!
