Road trip yields only two goals for Parkland squad
The Parkland Rangers traveled south to Morden this past weekend and dropped a pair of identical 4-1 decisions to the Pembina Valley Hawks. Both games featured strong performances by Parkland rookie goalie Ethan Myhre, who played back-to-back games for the first time in his U18 AAA career with Chase Glover unable to play due to illness.
Saturday night’s 8:00 pm puck drop seemed to still come too early for the Rangers who surrendered three goals in the opening seven minutes of the game. Two power play tallies from Acoyen Fehr and a Ragnar Gillis even strength marker left the Rangers staring at a massive 3-0 deficit. After a fruitless Parkland power play, the visitors then took four penalties in a row into the second period, leaving little room for offense. The Rangers then enjoyed four consecutive power play opportunities but couldn’t find their way back into the game despite outshooting the hosts 21-7 in the middle frame. Haiden Friesen stretched the Hawks lead to four goals in the opening minute of the third period, leaving Parkland with a large mountain to climb. Linden Smigelsky finally broke Ryler Gates’ shutout bid when he scored off a rebound with nine minutes left to play. Andrew Pidskalny and Tavyn Boychuk picked up assists on the power play tally. Myhre finished the night with 40 saves.
Sunday’s afternoon start proved to be another case of a sleepy Rangers squad starting slow. This time Pembina Valley used goals by Kam Thomas, Charlie Hill and Jayden Penner to jump out to a 3-0 lead before the game was eight minutes old. Parkland responded before the end of the frame as Hayden Seib scored on a breakaway with help from Cade Legaarden and Sam Swanton. Unfortunately, that was all the offense the Rangers could muster and a Gavin Funk goal at the midway point of the game gave the Hawks an insurmountable 4-1 lead. The Rangers penalty kill was busy as they killed off ten Hawks opportunities, but Myhre was called on to make 50 saves in the process. The Rangers were held scoreless on three chances with the man advantage.
The two losses leave the Rangers in 11th place with a 4-8-2 record heading into a big weekend of games in Kenora against the Thistles.
Rangers Ramblings: Glover (illness) and Maddox Shindle (injury) missed both games in Morden. Both are expected back for this weekend’s series… Seib’s goal on Sunday leaves him in seventh spot in the MU18AAA scoring race with 17 points through 14 games… Former Ranger Dru Mushmanski has picked up three assists through fifteen games with the Regina Pats of the WHL… Bo Eisner recently scored his first SJHL goal for the Melfort Mustangs… Ranger alumni Jayce Legaarden returned to Dauphin with the Winkler Flyers this weekend… Former Ranger Joshua Thompson has put up 21 points in 16 games for the NOJHL’s Blind River Beavers…