Oh, it was almost too painful to watch. It just seemed to be one mistake after another and unfortunately the Lakers capitalized on every one of our mistakes. While the Wranglers did score two goals, the goals against them came in waves. Finally the pain was over, final score 2-12 CDA.The Wranglers scored first and the first period made you think, "Hmmm the Wranglers might make this one a contest." On a beautiful pass from Chad Steiner to Jeff Purslow and Jeff put the puck in net (also assisted by Jossie). But, unfortunately this was a real game and there was no way to fast forward through the 2nd period into the 3rd. Once again the 2nd period was disasterous for the Wranglers. 7 goals! The first two 2nd period goals came within 9 seconds of each other. The last two goals for CDA in the period came within 10 seconds of each other. Hmmm? 4 goals within 20 seconds. That's just plain embarrassing. What's almost just as embarrassing is that 7 goals were scored with just 17 shots. And, at that point in the period it probably figured one goal for each 2 Laker shots made. Ugh! The Wranglers replaced Kramer with Blanton about at about 4:16 left in the 2nd period and Jared was able to close out the 2nd with no more goals.
In the 3rd period the Lakers added 4 more goals but they had to earn those a bit harder than in the 2nd period. But still it was 4 more goals. The Lakers were very good at getting the Wrangler "D" pulled over to one side while they quietly slipped a forward to the "back door" unattended. Then came the cross ice pass, and an easy Laker score. Ugh. A consolation prize to the Wranglers was Miller's lone 3rd period goal (assists Robison and Riermersma) to take some of the sting out of the can of "Wup Ass" being fed to the Wranglers.
On another note, the game seemed to go on and on. As the score climbed, you could see that the Lakers were starting to talk more and more smack to the Wranglers. Because the Wranglers are at the bottom of NorPac, the Lakers believed they could just do what they wanted with the Wranglers by pushing, shoving, manhandling, holding, spearing, slashing, boarding, and punching without any consequence. The Wranglers' Kyle Bricksler would have none of that. Unfortunately after a while Bricksler's antics earned him a game ejection. Also ejected was Purslow because of a fight. Out of the northern Idaho backwoods they must've found the officials because penalties were being called and most people had no idea of what was being called. The joke was that the penalty was often called on the Wrangler who was receiving the Laker abuse.
Perhaps we can chalk this loss up to the long 12+ hour road trip for the Wranglers from Medford, Oregon to Post Falls, Idaho, and then another hour back to the rink at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington. Let's hope that today's game the boys are refreshed and ready to keep the mistakes to a minimum and play a good game of hockey.
Player notes: The Wranglers are without forwards, Lucas Walsh, and Paul Blase, and without defenseman Brett Losey. They all went home early. Only 15 Wranglers suited up for this contest. It was a sparse bench. I heard that Purslow and Bricksler will not be playing tonight because of last night's antics, so this will mean that only 13 Wranglers will be suited up for tonight's game. For Monday's game, the Wranglers will be without defenseman Zach Miller as he heads home early.
