The Wranglers and the Jaguars meet today at 3:30 PM for a rare Sunday game. This will be a bit of a tough one for the Wranglers since they played last night up in Bremerton against the Tomahawks, got on the bus for the long, all-night ride back to Medford, and then another game. Whew! Now that's tough.As I said in a previous post, the Wranglers have a couple of new additions to the roster #20 Lucas Walsh, and #16 Nick Guzman. I believe these two will help with the Wrangler scoring and offense. Nick has got great "hands" which he demonstrated against the Tomahawks. He's aggressive too. This might be just want is needed for the Wranglers. Now, if his chemistry can mix with the two producing "D" - Long and Miller - along with the forwards - Blase, Purslow, Riemersma and others - the Wranglers might be able to change things up, score and win today's game. Wouldn't that be just grand.
River City is beatable. They've lost 3 of their last 4 games, and one was a real blow-out. So, they are vulnerable. Their power play (13.8%) is 9th in the league as compared to the Wranglers who are 13th in the league (6.1%). In penalty kill the Jags are 9th (81.2%) whereas the Wranglers are 12th (76.3%). Eight Jags have more scoring points than the top Wrangler player. Nighbert is 13th on NorPac's Scoring Leader list. Nighbert (30), Nicklas (20), and Mayers (20) each have 20 or more scoring points. So the Jags know how to score. We've seen it and experienced it. The top Jag goalie is Buckley with an 0.894% save percentage.
What's needed to win... As I have said all along the Wranglers have got to skate to effectively make and get the pass, which allows them to control the puck, and set up an offense. Like last night, move quickly through the neutral zone to set up the offense. Next, the Wranglers have got to make the shot. All too often they skate into the corner then look to see where to pass. Rather, make the shot, get the rebound, and shoot. Finally, they've got to continue to make hits, not "namby-pamby" hits, but BIG hits. The Wranglers started to show big hits that last night - keep it up, no, get more. By making big hits, the Wranglers control the game too.
However, my expectations are tempered because fatigue could be a factor for the Wranglers. Hopefully this game won't turn out like past games where it seemed like the Wranglers were trying to herd cats. Instead I hope they can reach deep inside, pull out the beast and play tough. C'mon Wranglers "de-tooth" and "de-claw" the Jags, and make them into a bunch of pussies. GO WRANGLERS!
Player notes: Abera will be back after his suspension. Unsure about Losey - he did get a game misconduct, but does that go for today too? Miglioretto sat out last night's game. Heard there might be a few more scratches for today's game.
