The Amarillo Wranglers continued their winless streak, dropping two games this past weekend at NyTex Sports Center in North Richland Hills against the Lone Star Brahmas.

Amarillo took the first game on the chin Friday night with a 5-1 loss. Saturday night’s game saw improvement, however, Amarillo came up short 3-1.

Amarillo is 18–29–2-2 with 40 points, sitting in eighth place in the North American Hockey League’s South Division. The Wranglers are 13 points out of the final playoff spot with nine games left in the regular season.

The Amarillo Wranglers head to Corpus Christi to play two games this weekend against the IceRays at the American Bank Center. 

Friday’s game

The Amarillo Wranglers hit the ice looking to end their four-game winless streak against arguably the best team in the league, the Lone Star Brahmas. The Brahmas scored five unanswered goals in the first two periods of this game as Amarillo was not able to find a rhythm or a way to stop Lone Star’s explosive offensive onslaught.

Amarillo’s lone highlight of this game came at the 8:57 mark of the third period. In the power-play, when newly acquired backup goalie shot the puck down ice to an awaiting Jake Bollinger, who was able to find the back of the net, giving Amarillo its only goal of the evening.

Amarillo took the 5–1 loss in this penalty-filled and cumbersome hockey game.

Saturday’s game

The first period saw some excellent goal tending by the newly acquired goalie from the Aberdeen Wings, goalie Cavin Greniuk. Greniuk was filling in for Amarillo’s starting goalie, Casimir Weckstorm, who was out ill.

At the 8:11 mark of the first period and in the penalty kill, Lone Star forward Christian Venticinque was able to collect a little loose change in front of the net to score his 16th goal of the season. Lone Star took the 1–0 lead into the first intermission.

The second period saw a continuation of great goaltending by Greniuk, stopping 11 of 11 shots. Unfortunately, Amarillo was not able to find the back of the net in the second period as this game remained 1-0 going into the final break.

Lone Star started off the third period scoring quickly when Vincenzo Capano slapped the puck past a very crowded and congested Grenik, giving the Brahmas the 2–0 lead. Amarillo recently acquired a young Russian phenom fresh out of AAA hockey and celebrating his 17th birthday this day, Frenk Kolgushkin.

Kolgushkin played his AAA hockey for the Colorado Rampage and made his Amarillo Wranglers debut Friday night. The young Russian took a beautiful pass from line-mate Jake Thornton, scoring his first NAHL and Wranglers goal at the ripe age of 17.

Look for many more to come as this Moskva, Russian native matures and develops his skill set in the NAHL. Amarillo was able to cut the lead in half with about 10 minutes left in the game, 2-1. First-year head coach Michael Hill pulled Amarillo goalie Greniuk with just 33 seconds left in the game as the Brahmas were able to capitalize on this and hit the empty netter to end this game 3–1.

Injury Bug

Unfortunately, Amarillo has had its disproportionate share of nagging injuries this season and this was highlighted this past weekend. Fan favorite and associate captain, Ty Izadi, was involved in a freak hockey incident two weeks ago against the New Mexico Ice Wolves, suffering an eye injury that ended his season.

Izadi went through a successful procedure and will be recovering at his home in Long Beach, Calif. Izadi has 15 goals with 19 assists for a total of 34, points ranking him third on the team. He is also the center on the infamous scoring line “Hegs and the Hounds.” Alfons Jentler will be taking over his role, sharing the line with Caden Hegarty and Daniel Ressega.

Izadi has a year of eligibility left in the NAHL and is expected to return to the Wranglers next season. I spoke with him shortly after his procedure. He stated that he was very disappointed that he could not finish the season, however he’s extremely excited about the team next season.

“I love playing in Amarillo and in front of junior league hockey’s best fans,” Izadi said. ”My time in Amarillo has been nothing short of amazing and I cannot wait until September.”

Izadi is expected to make a full and complete recovery.

Editor’s Note

Please listen for Tommy T‘s weekly recap of Amarillo Wranglers hockey on the “Drive at Five” with Lance Lahnert every Thursday afternoon at 5 p.m. exclusively on 710-AM KGNC.