The bantam AAA Norman Wolves had a great first 30 minutes against the Parkland Rangers in Thompson Nov. 18, outscoring their opponents 5-1 before a late second period collapse paved the way for Parkland to take the lead and continue building on it for a 9-5 victory.
Matthew Munro took the spirit out of the Wolves with back-to-back goals 20 seconds apart in the final minute of the middle frame, transforming a two-goal Wolves lead into a tie game. Jayce Legaarden and Kyan Grouette had started the comeback with goals earlier in the period, Legaarden’s just past the midway mark and Grouette’s with less than three minutes to go before the intermission. Prior to that, the Wolves’ Joey Lies had doubled his team’s lead with back-to-back goals 75 seconds apart.
Grouette, Legaarden, Carter Zalischuk and Rylan Gibbs had the goals for the Rangers in the third period as what had looked like a certain win for the Wolves earlier evaporated into a lopsided loss.
Brady Krentz of the Wolves opened the scoring in the game before Parkland’s Drake Pahl tied it up. Ian Snooks and Clark Scaddan then scored for Norman to put them up 3-1 at the first intermission.
Goaltender Logan Salamondra stopped 30 of 38 shots in about 50 minutes of work for the Wolves before being replaced by Linden Gamblin, who stopped nine of 10 the rest of the way as the Wolves were outshot 48-28.
It was a much closer result the previous night when the Rangers outduelled the Wolves by a 4-2 score.
Colby Hnidy opened the scoring for Norman before Gibbs tied it up. Zalischuk and Brayden Dube gave Parkland a 3-1 lead in the second but Scaddan scored with two seconds left before the intermission to put the Wolves within one heading into the third period. Parkland’s Parker Boguski had the only goal of the final frame.
Shots in the game were 44-36 for the Rangers and Gamblin stopped 40 shots for the Wolves in the loss.
The Wolves are last in the seven-team West Division and in the 13-team league with a 1-14-0-1 record for three points, five behind the Rangers, who are sixth in the west.
