The 100 Mile House Wranglers wrapped up their 2024/2025 regular season with back-to-back wins.
On Friday, Feb. 21 the Wranglers beat the Chase Heat 6-1 on home ice before hitting the road on Saturday, Feb. 22 where they beat out the Williams Lake Mustangs 7-4 in Williams Lake. With these final two victories, the Wranglers clinched the top spot in the Doug Birks Division and have secured home-ice advantage for the first two rounds of the playoffs.
"It was nice to get a couple of wins this weekend against Chase and Williams Lake. Both were pretty significant wins by a couple of goals and it's nice to end off the regular reason that way with a couple of wins," Levi Stuart, head coach of the Wranglers, said. "Finishing in first place (in the division) was the goal along, to get another banner here up in the rink for winning the divisional title. That's the first once since the championship team."
As a bonus, Stuart said his team also ended up winning the Cariboo Cup on Saturday night. The Cariboo Cup was a season-long competition between the Wranglers, Williams Lake Mustangs and Quesnel River Rush to see who could score the most goals against one another. Stuart said the Cariboo Cup will be officially presented to the Wranglers on Monday, March 3 in Williams Lake.
On Friday night, Stuart said the Wranglers' defence was good against the Heat, largely preventing them from getting any chances to score. He noted they were contributions from multiple players on his lineup in scoring, which was good to see.
Against Williams Lake, Stuart said he was largely happy with how the game went but noted there are still things his players need to tighten up. The fact the Mustangs were able to score four goals throughout the night is something they'll have to clean up as they go into playoffs this week. He noted some of these goals were from turnovers that led to shorthanded goals, so he will be working with his team to eliminate such errors.
"Other than that it was nice to get seven goals and show we have some offence and can click on the powerplay. We're really dialling in our systems and I think everybody is starting to come together and play the way we want to play," Stuart said.
One highlight from Saturday's game was that defenceman Camden Bowman got three assists throughout the night, doubling his season points in what Stuart said was his best game of the year. Fellow defenceman Ethan Hofstrand also returned to the ice Saturday and paired well with Bowman, Stuart added.
With the regular season now wrapped up, playoffs will kick off on Friday, Feb. 28. This year marks the first time since the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League began to transition into a Junior A League the Wranglers have made the playoffs.
The Wranglers will be facing the Mustangs in the first round with the first two games set to take place at the South Cariboo Rec Centre on Friday, Feb. 28 and Saturday, March 1. Stuart said he is hoping the entire community will come out to watch and support the team.
"The hope is to get it done in four but you never know, Williams Lake is a good team and anything can happen on any given night in this league. I'm sure it's going to be a battle either way," Stuart remarked. "We really appreciate the continued support from the fans and we really hope, especially for these playoff games, that we pack the building. The more people in the building the better and the more energy it gives the boys."
