The Sylvan Lake Wranglers have returned to the Heritage Junior B Hockey League (HJHL) finals as the north division champions for the second year in a row.
In the finals, the Wranglers are facing off against the defending HJHL champion, the Okotoks CarStar Bisons.
While last year the Bisons swept the series against Sylvan Lake, this year, that won’t be the case.
The series is currently tied 1-1 between the two teams with the Bisons taking Game 1, 3-1 and the Wranglers taking Game 2, 4-2.
In Game 1, all goals were scored in the first period with Brayden Kapty, Avery Greug, and Scott Brown scoring for the Bisons and Austin Corsiatto scoring a power-play goal for the Wranglers.
Game 2, was a big win at home for the Wranglers, with Justin Vandermeer and Justin Gyori scoring in the first period and Riley Teulon and Gyori scoring in the third.
In Game 2, Kaleb Schuller scored in the second and Daniel Tainton scored in the third for the Bisons.
Even in the Game 1 loss, Kaden Toussaint had a huge night for the Wranglers with 40 saves. In Game 2, he turned aside 35 shots to earn the victory.
The next game in the best-of-seven final series, Game 3, will be played in Okotoks on Friday, March 22, at 8 p.m.
The series will then return home again to the NexSource Centre for Game 4 on Saturday, March 23 at 8 p.m.
Going in, the Wranglers knew the series would be tough, head coach Pat Garrity said.
“We were on a collision course and here we are. The Bisons are a great team with great depth and we proved on Saturday night we could play with them and are excited for the rest of the series.”
Before entering the finals, the Wranglers swept the Airdrie Techmation Thunder and knocked out the two-seeded Medicine Hat Cubs in four games during the semi-finals.
The Wranglers finished their regular season with a 33-3-2 record in the north division and were led offensively by Gyori who scored 20 goals and 35 assists for 55 points in 37 games.
Rookie forward Own Callow was close behind with 17 goals and 34 assists for 51 points followed by Reed Sparrow who added 49 points.