It was a close game for the Sylvan Lake Wranglers as they fell to the Coaldale Copperheads Dec. 8.
The Wranglers faced a loss 4-3 to the Copperheads on home ice. Both teams sit in second place in their divisions.
While Coaldale came out on top of the Sunday night game, the Wranglers game them a run for their money and ended up out-shooting them.
The Wranglers took aim on the net a total of 35 times during the game, while the Copperheads made 28 shots on the Sylvan Lake net.
The first period was a draw for both teams. Both the Wranglers and the Copperheads made eight attempts on a goal, though neither were successful.
At the end of the first 20 minutes of play it was a scoreless event.
Coaldale came off the intermission looking for the back of Sylvan Lake’s net. In the first five minutes of the second period Copperheads scored twice on Wranglers goaltender Shae Herbert
The score was 2-0 for Coaldale with only five minutes played in the middle frame.
While Sylvan Lake out-shot the visiting team in the second period, they were only successful once.
After 12 minutes of play, Braidon Westin, from Brett Westin and Zachary Daniels, connected with the puck and sent it sailing past the Copperheads’ goalie.
With one period left to play the score was 2-1 for Coaldale, and still anyone’s game.
Seconds after the opening face-off of the third period, the Copperheads came in hot and added to their tally and extended their lead.
The visiting team came back again after two minutes on the ice and found a whole in the Wranglers’ defence to score once again.
The Wranglers answered back almost two minutes later. Kyle Richmond assisted by Zachary Daniels closed the distance between Coaldale and Sylvan Lake.
With roughly five minutes of play left on the clock, Taite Opdendries, with assists by Kale Lavalee and Wade Lightburn, was the last player to successfully connect with the puck and score.
As the final buzzer rang through Arena Two at the NexSource Centre, the Copperheads celebrated with a 4-2 win.
Looking at the penalty bench, it was a quiet game. Over three periods, there was only three penalties, two of which went to Sylvan Lake’s Brett Westin.
The Sylvan Lake Wranglers will return home on Dec. 15 when they will meet the Ponoka Stampeders. The puck will drop at 8 p.m. on Dec. 15.
