REGINA RANGERS

Ranger Season Ends with Loss to N. D. (Apr 6)
The Rangers headed out to Wilcox knowing that they had to beat the regular season Champs by 5 goals to have a chance to advance, and at one point in the game it even started to look possible.  The Bluecrew had some jump in their jeans when they took the ice, but it was the Hounds that struck first on a shot from the circle that Coops would like to have back.  The good guys got that one back on some hard work by Cliffie and his linemates who, quite frankly, worked their butts off all night.   Cliffie did his komakazie forecheck rush, swooped behind the net and slipped the puck out to the Razor who dented the twine.  A sweet goal.  Talking of sugar, Apples made one of his patented rushes, through a couple of Hounds, and then finding himself without a shot on the goalie, deked the goalie and threw the puck back into the crease where Kinger said "Thank you very much" and potted the Rangers second goal. 

The third goal was courtesy of Biggie, and the second period ended with the Rangers with a 3 - 1 lead and reasonable prospects for the second round.   As it turned out, the Rangers hopes were as likely as coach KoKo's odds in having Nicole Ritchie write back in response to the love letter he sent her recently.  The Hounds blew the game open in the early part of the third with 3 consecutive goals.   Murph snapped home a quick shot from the side of the net to give the Rangers some hope of going out on a winning note, but the Hounds came back after a bloody ridiculous penalty call to score the winner and the boys thoughts started to turn to baseball.   Game stars were Cliffie, Biggie and Razor who proved once again that it isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog. 

Caoch Mark summed it up, after the game when he told the players that we had over-achieved this year.  For a team as young as we are, we had a very good season.  You always want to win your last game of the season, but sometimes you just can't do that.  We won a couple of tournaments, including Salt Lake City; we had a 15 game unbeaten streak near the end of the season, and we had a number of teams quite concerned that they had to play us in the modified playoff round.  The Rangers are not accustomed to making excuses and we won't do that this year.  A word to the wise: Watch out for us next year!!  Thanks to all of the players and parents for a very enjoyable year. 

Check out this page from time to time and we will post news relating to our windup.  Talk to you soon. 

Mar 31st
Rangers Return to Earth with a Thud

Perhaps it was inevitable, but the Rangers lengthy unbeaten streak finally ended last night when they were beaten by the Hawks in their third playoff game of the first round.  The loss is a particularly costly one, coming on the heels of a 3 - 3 tie with the Blades, a game that the Rangers clearly had won, but let the Blades off the hook.  Not to discredit the Hawks, who were full value in winning the league title this year, but when the Rangers followed the formula for their recent 15 game unbeaten streak, they were clearly the better team.  As evidence I offer the goal statistics for the second period, the only one in which the Bluecrew worked hard in pressing their opponent, forechecking and backchecking with a vengence.  In that period the good guys outshot the Hawks by a margin of 21 - 5 (Stats courtesy of MM Stats). 

 

Overall the Hawks outshot the Bluecrew by a count of 36 - 31.   The Hawks opened quickly and took a 3 - 0 advantage before Murph wheeled out of the corner and roofed a nice shot to make the score 3 - 1.  The Hawks came right back and again opened up the 3 goal advantage.  In the second Razor scored followed by the first of two by Alps and the good guys were within one to start the third.    Midway through the period the teams exchanged goals in a 16 second span, but the Hawks got a final backbreaker with 2.39 left in the game and that was all she wrote - 6 - 4 for the bad guys. 

Game stars were Alps, who once again discovered that when he skates hard, the pucks go in the net, Tommy, who was very physical and effective against the Hawks, and Razor who in addition to his goal, played very well, positionally, all game. 

Bud Anderson summed up the game for readers of the Wire.   "We seem to have forgotten some of the things that made us successful over the past month", he said.  "We have to keep the pressure on all the time.   We are a quick team and we have to take advantage of that.  You can't forcheck from 6 feet away.  But I guess our fate is in our own hands and we will see who rises to the challenge and shows leadership in our next game against the Hounds.  Our star players have to play like star players, but I am expecting the whole team to rise to the challenge.  It should be fun".  The Rangers will have to win and win big in Notre Dame if their season is to continue! 

 

Next Ranger action is the practice this Sunday.