Amarillo was able to salvage a split with the Rhinos falling short 3-2 on Friday, but bouncing back with an exciting 3-2 win on Saturday night.

The Wranglers (10-10-0-2, 22 points) currently sit in fifth place in the North American Hockey League South Division one point back of El Paso for fourth.

Amarillo will be back on the road this week to take on the Colorado Grit.

Friday’s game 

Coming off a rough weekend against the Lone Star Brahmas at the NYTEX Centre in beautiful North Richland Hills, the Wranglers valiantly attempted to change the course of their season.

The Rhinos hit the ice with high energy, anticipating extending their lead over the Wranglers in this weekend’s match up. The Rhinos struck first at the 7:10 mark of the first period when forward Rasmus Nousianen scored his fifth goal of the season, giving the Rhinos an early 1-0 lead.

With the momentum squarely on the shoulders of El Paso, Amarillo forward and fan favorite Divyne Apollon (Devo as he’s affectionately called) with a keen sense of situational awareness, sparked up what can only be described as the “fight of the year” in the NAHL.

This epic throwdown had it all – fisticuffs, helmets flying, gloves off drama, and a grand exit off the ice that ignited the crowd and changed the momentum of this physically intense hockey game.

Apollon is the first player in the NAHL to achieve the 100-minute penalty mark this season.

With only seven shots on goal from the Wranglers, the score remained 1-0 through the end of the first period. Limited shots on goal was the theme of the night for the Wranglers. The second period saw another defensive struggle with Amarillo only shooting three shots on goal for the entire period, as the Rhinos scored early in the second period, taking a 2-0 lead into the final intermission.

With their backs against the wall and at the 11:04 mark of the third period, Amarillo‘s Daniel Ressega made a beautiful pass to defenseman Ashton Breyer as he scored his first NAHL goal, cutting the lead in half.

The Rhinos answered back on a power-play goal, giving them a 3-1 lead. Amarillo veteran leader Trace Day made things interesting as he scored his his 6th goal of the season, making the score 2-3. The comeback was not in the cards this night as Amarillo lost 3-2.

Amarillo was outshot 29 to a season low 16 in this perplexing loss. Wranglers’ goalie Charlie Zolin took the loss saving 26-of-29 shots.

Saturday’s game 

Under the watchful eye of President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Harry Mahood, the Amarillo Wranglers took the ice in an urgent need of a victory.

In their last three games, Amarillo had struggled on the offensive end being outscored 12-2.

When Amarillo hit the ice, the change in attitude for this team was quantifiable. There’s an old saying “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” and that’s exactly what happened from Amarillo’s veterans and leadership.

At the 8:32 mark of the first period, Trace Day scored his second goal of the weekend and his seventh goal of the season, giving Amarillo an early lead. Amarillo took that 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Early in the second period, Corson McGuire rifled one between the pipes to score his team leading 10th goal of the season, giving Amarillo a 2-0 lead.

Not to be outdone, fan favorite Jacob Miller on the power-play scored his third goal of the season, giving Amarillo a 3-0 lead going into the third period.

With the end of the losing streak clearly in sight, the Wranglers were on a mission to close out this victory. However, the Rhinos had different thoughts. At the 1:23 mark of the third period and on the power play, Rhino forward and team scoring leader Jacob Sollano sniped one past Amarillo goaltender Charles-Antoine Girard and this game became interesting.

Just a few short moments later, the Rhinos were able to strike blood yet again to really make things interesting as Amarillo held onto a 3-2 lead.

Amarillo goalie Girard was masterful between the pipes as he was desperately seeking his first win of the season. With unnecessary penalties kept in check, the Wranglers snapped their three-game losing streak to close this one out 3-2.

Charles-Antoine Girard was beautiful in the net as he was able to notch his first victory of the season and his first victory in the NAHL.

Local Hockey player makes history 

Austin Richards became the first Amarillo native to play in the NAHL.

Richards recently made his debut in Amarillo as a member of the Odessa Jackalopes.

Richards got his start in the Amarillo youth hockey program as a mite and was featured on ESPN‘s top plays of the day while scoring a magnificent goal at the Amarillo Civic.

Austin to Iowa to play 15U-AAA hockey. After an illustrious AAA-18U career in the Car Shield program, the Odessa Jackalopes drafted him in the early rounds.

Austin Richards represents everything that is good in the Texas Panhandle – strong work ethic, strong character, and a strong understanding of team values.

He recently made history again by being the first Amarillo native to score a goal in the NAHL. We at Press Pass Sports are proud of Austin‘s accomplishment, and we are quite confident we will see more Amarillo hockey players make it to the highest level in hockey as the Ice Ranch and the Amarillo Youth programs continue to thrive.

Editor’s Note

Please listen for Tommy Tee‘s weekly recap of the Amarillo Wranglers hockey on the “Drive at Five” with Lance Lahnert every Thursday afternoon at 5 p.m. exclusively on 102.9 FM the Panhandle Sports Star.