Rangers Face Wheat Kings

Rangers Face Wheat Kings

Emily Mailhot Reporter – Vegreville News Advertiser

For the first time since the celebrated pre-season victory, the Vegreville Jr. B Rangers faced off with the Killam Wheat Kings on home ice on Friday, October 25. Coming down from a couple of weeks of home ice losses, this was the Ranger’s last Vegreville game before one away game followed by a nearly two-week-long break, and they had hopes of making it a victory.

Whatever initial fight the Rangers had at the start of the first period was quickly snuffed as the Wheat Kings amassed their five-point lead. The first period was fairly clean-cut with three Killam goals and only two 2-minute penalties (both going to Killam), but by the second period gameplay fell onto the chippy side with a total of 81 penalty minutes (Ranger 38 min, Wheat Kings 43 min), and even the swap-out to give goalie Ryan Koenig a rest early in the second period did little to stop two more Killam goals. Among the penalties in the second, there were five Game Misconducts, a few incidents of roughing and fighting, and one 5-minute penalty for a spitting match.

In the third, tensions did little to improve and even as the gap between both teams’ shots on goal worsened to a final 54-28, no goals were scored in the third period. There were, however, 93 more penalty minutes doled out for Misconducts, fighting, interference, cross-checking, charging, instigating, and roughing. The final score came to 5-0 for Killam, with 54-28 shots on goal and a total 178 penalty minutes. The loss took Vegreville from 6th place overall in the league to 7th just behind the Vermilion Tigers. The Rangers went on to face the Clippers in Lac La Biche on October 26th. Their next game will be November 9th.