The Rhinos did win Friday’s game 4-2 before Amarillo returned the favor doubling up El Paso 4-2 on Saturday snapping a long frustrating 10-game losing streak.
Amarillo is currently sitting at 14-22-1-3 overall on the year with 32 points The Wranglers are six points out of the sixth and final playoff spot.
Amarillo is back at home opening up a two-game series with Oklahoma this weekend.
Friday’s game
The new look Amarillo Wranglers enhanced their roster with five new skaters that dressed for this game. Some of these new players flew into El Paso International Airport just hours before.
The first period of this game saw neither team score. Wranglers netminder Charles Antoine Gerard stopped 11-of-11 shots as Amarillo outshot El Paso 2-1 in the first period.
El Paso struck first at the 7:33 mark of the second period when Kyle Arias found the back of the net, giving El Paso a 1-0 lead. At the 10:31 mark of the second period, Amarillo scored a much-needed goal when newly acquired and fresh off the plane Kirill Evstigneev scored his first goal as a Wrangler, tying this game 1-1.
Shortly thereafter, El Paso scored again at the 10:52 mark, taking a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. Just short of the halfway mark of the third period, El Paso scored their third goal of the game on a power play, giving the Rhinos a 3-1 advantage.
Amarillo attempted to make it interesting when forward Noah Ribeiro – the son of NHL great Mike Ribeiro – scored his fourth goal of the season.
The El Paso Rhinos captured the victory 4-2.
Saturday’s game
With five new players added to the Amarillo Wranglers roster and with only one game played and a morning skate underneath its belt, Amarillo took to the ice looking for some much-needed points.
The Rhinos struck first at the 7:43 mark of the first period when Roope Tuomioksa rifled one past newly acquired goalie Matt Schoephoerster, giving El Paso the early 1-0 lead.
Amarillo gave up a power play goal at the 15:18 mark, putting El Paso up 2-0. At the 8:55 mark of the first period and in a power-play, Amarillo’s Alexander Aleslov took a beautiful pass from linemate and captain Morley Phillips, cutting the Rhinos lead in half.
The score remained 2-1 Rhinos going into the first intermission. Fresh off the plane and directly into an Amarillo Wrangler team uniform, Kirill Evstigneev, a proud Lithuanian recently acquired from the New Hampshire Mountain Kings, came to Texas to make a statement and he did with a goal that tied the contest up 2-2.
Amarillo’s Cole Saterdalen scored his fourth goal of the season and all of a sudden the Wranglers found themselves up 3-2.
The Rhinos pulled their goalie with just a minute 30 seconds left in the game when the “statement maker” Kirill Evistigneev scored his third goal of the weekend and put a little icing on the cake as Amarillo went on to end the long losing drought.
Evistigneev was awarded the NAHL South Division Player of the Year. Quite the feat for a player making his debut over the weekend.
NAHL Top Prospects Tournament
With hundreds of junior and college scouts expected to attend this season’s 2025 NAHL Top Prospects Tournament, anticipation is through the roof.
Taking place at the USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan, the Amarillo Wranglers will be represented by the very popular Captain Morley Phillips.
Phillips is a prime example of the blue-collar approach that the Wranglers fan base respects so deeply. With eight goals, 13 assists for a total of 21 points, Phillips, known as a grinder, should garner a lot of attention from college scouts.
“The people of Amarillo have been so accommodating and welcoming to me,” Phillips said. “I love the Amarillo community, and I love being part of the Amarillo hockey family.”
Morley Phillips will represent the Amarillo Wranglers and the community of Amarillo in only the way he can and that is in a first-class manner.
City of Amarillo to the rescue
The Budweiser Bullpen recently had a major upgrade completed in the off-season to its boards, scoring facility and refurbished ice plant. Unfortunately, just prior to some recent games, a catastrophic failure occurred with the newly refurbished ice condensers, thus causing a possibility of some games postponed.
The management of the Amarillo Civic Center, and the City of Amarillo pulled up their shirt sleeves and were able to come up with a viable solution to keep the ice in the Budweiser Bullpen. This Herculean effort with the staff of the Civic Center and executives with the Amarillo Wranglers is absolutely a perfect example of the importance of ice hockey in the Amarillo market and the city of Amarillo’s commitment to this great sport. Congratulations to all.
Editor’s Note
Please listen for a special edition of Tommy Tee‘s weekly recap of the Amarillo Wranglers hockey on the “Drive at Five” with Lance Lahnert every Thursday afternoon at 5 p.m. exclusively on 102.9 FM the Panhandle Sports Star.
