The Parkland U-18 Rangers will play in Credit Union Place for the first time this regular season on Friday evening.
Parkland welcomes Yellowhead as the two rivals clash in the second of three straight. Parkland comes into the game with a perfect 2-0 record while Yellowhead is on the other side of the spectrum as they're 0-1.
"We're jacked, there's no doubt about it. We had a great practice on Thursday as we worked on our specialty teams," said Tyler Carefoot. "We're in a tough division so every win is extremely valuable. We can't take our foot off the throttle, we need to give it all we have."
Parkland looked very impressive on Tuesday as they beat Yellowhead, 5-1. They outshot Yellowhead and they also killed off 7-of-8 penalties they took. The Rangers; however, did only go 1-for-7 on the man advantage. Trey Sauder had the hot stick on Tuesday as he scored twice while Brayden Dube, Josh Thompson, and Luke Decorby all scored singles.
"I thought our first period was elementary, it was very messy and we panicked," said Carefoot. "We went over that at practice on Thursday. We have to stop running around and we need to trust the process. If we do that, we'll put ourselves in a position to succeed."
Keaton Ziprick has won both games in net for Parkland. The all-star from Russell turned away 24-of-25 shots he faced on Tuesday. He also made 21 saves last Sunday in a 10-1 drubbing of Norman. The Dauphin King prospect has no doubt looked solid in the first two games and he will be back in the lineup for game three tonight.
"I think he would be the first one to tell you that he hasn't been as focused as he has in the past," ended Carefoot. "With that said, we're hopeful that he's found his magic after his two good performances. If he has, he's another big asset that is going to bring success to this team."
The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. Looking forward to Sunday afternoon, Parkland will host Yellowhead at 1:30. The game theme will be "Pink the Rink". The Rangers will wear pink in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month as well as the many other forms of the disease. The Rangers encourage fans to "Pink the Rink" in honour of everyone whose lives have been affected.
