Points: 45
Standings in South: 4th
Warriors Record: 19-14-5-2
Last 10 Games: 7-2-1-0
Friday’s Game:
Heading into the weekend, only one point separated the Amarillo Wranglers from the Wichita Falls Warriors for the fourth and final playoff position.
Friday night’s game was a close affair, with both team trading goals in the first period. William Lawson-Body got the scoring started for the Warriors on the ER-Now power play at the 10:06 mark to net his 10th of the season. 12:00 mark of the opening frame, Kristaps Skrastins, Amarillo’s leading scorer evened up the score.
Nikolas Campbell and Brendan Williams would as goals a little over 90 seconds apart to put the score 2-2 heading into the second frame.
Skrastins would grab his second of the game at the 8:45 mark only for Drew Vieten to answer with a goal at 9:36 to keep the Warriors even with the Wranglers by the start of the third period.
NAHL Top Prospect Joseph Harguindeguy would collect the game winning goal with a shot from the point to score the lone goal in the third period to have the Warriors finish on top of the Wranglers 4-3.
Warriors Goaltender Brandon Milberg collects the win stopping 19 of 22 shots, while Max Gutjahr picked up his 11 loss of the season.
Saturday’s Game:
Looking for the third weekend sweep against the Wranglers this season, the Warriors came into the game looking for better game defensively and dictate the pace of play, and that is what they did.
The scoring started at the 7:13 mark of the first period as Dean Bauchiero scored his first NAHL goal of his career. Much like the night before, the opening goal came courtesy of the ER-Now power play.
Philip Tornqvist, another of the Warriors NAHL Top Prospects, blasted the puck by the Wrangler’s netminder from the high slot, to push the lead 2-0 at the 11:46 mark of the first period. Tornqvist’s goal was his 11th on the season, and puts him third in defenseman goals scored.
Things were getting chippy in the second period as Amarillo’s frustrations started to boil over and resulted in a fight between Cade Lemmer and Jayden Jenson behind the Amarillo net. Both were served five minutes for fighting and a ten minute game misconduct for their actions.
Adisen Brueck worked his way to the net and stuffed himself his 3rd of the season from a pass made by NAHL Team Select player Owen Dyer to take a 3-0 lead into the locker room.
Cade Lemmer grabbed the Gordie Howe Hat Trick in the sixth minute of the third period to put the score to 4-0 until the shutout was finally broken by Skrastins with just over five minutes to play in regulation. Joseph Harguindeguy sealed the deal with an empty netter and Wichita would leave the Budweiser Bull Pin with a 5-1 win and the weekend sweep
Milberg collected his second win in as many nights stopping 28 of 29 shots faced, while Clafton, who was making his Wrangler debut, would only stop 31 of 35 Warriors shots sent his way.
Next Game:
On February 11th and 12th the Warriors make their way back to the Kay Yeager Coliseum to take on the El Paso Rhinos who are last in the South Division. It will be Buy One Get One 50% off tickets purchasable at the box office with Armored Roofing being the presenting sponsor for the games this weekend.
