Amarillo Wranglers suffer tough weekend at Corpus Christi

Jake Thornton of the Amarillo Wranglers skates up the ice during a game at Corpus Christi over the weekend. [Lauren Corea/ For Press Pass Sports]

The Amarillo Wranglers had a rough weekend after being swept on the road by North American Hockey League rival, Corpus Christi, this past weekend by a 4-2 and 6-3 count.

Amarillo opens the 2026 calendar with a 14–17–0–1 record (29 points), sitting in eighth place. with 29 points in eighth place.

The Wranglers will come home for three games at the Budweiser Bullpen starting Friday. Amarillo will take on Lone Star on Friday and Saturday and then battle Odessa on Sunday.

Coming off a split weekend against the El Paso Rhinos, the Amarillo Wranglers were looking for some much-needed points.

The first period saw some amazing goaltending on both ends of the ice as there was no scoring. 

IceRays forward Justin Thibault got a lucky bounce that hit the back of the net within 30 seconds of the start of the second period. The import line for the Amarillo Wranglers that consists of Kirill Evstigneev, Ukrainian Danylo Dolin and Igor Petrov answered back within 60 seconds. Petrov hit line mate Dolan as he passed a rocket to Evstigneev, who launched one that hit the back of the net, tying the score 1-1. The IceRays answered back as one of their imports, Islom Dzhabberganov got the biscuit in the basket, giving the IceRays the 2-1 lead going into the final intermission. 

With a large and enthusiastic crowd in the stands, the IceRays looked to increase their lead. At the 14:32 mark of the third period, Andrej Paricka lit the lamp, giving Corpus Christi a 2-goal lead. Approaching the halfway point of the third period with one of the hottest sticks in the South Division, Amarillo center Ty Izadi scored his 11th goal of the season. Corpus Christi’s Johnny Maruna scored his 10th goal of the season that sealed the victory for the IceRays 4-2.

Daniel Rassega (77) of the Amarillo Wranglers fights for the puck in the Corpus Christi zone during a recent game over the weekend. [Lauren Corea/ For Press Pass Sports]

For the months of November and December, Amarillo has only won two Saturday affairs.

As the Wranglers hit the ice looking to stop this trend, the IceRays were looking to continue it. IceRays forward Andrej Paricka started the scoring off at the 14:46 mark of the first period, giving them the early 1-0 lead. Amarillo answered back three minutes later when Jack Thornton went top shelf, tying this game 1-1. Neither team scored again in the first period as the tie remained 1-1 at the first break. 

The second period saw defensive challenges by the Wranglers as the IceRays scored two unanswered goals, one being a shorthanded goal. The score was 3-1 going into the last intermission.

As the third period started and in the power play, IceRays Johnny Maruna scored his 10th goal of the season, giving Corpus Christi a 4-1 lead. Overcoming defensive struggles was the theme of the night as Wranglers forward Caden Hegarty scored his 6th goal of the season, cutting the IceRays lead to 4-2. While the bewildered IceRays fans watched in amazement, Amarillo‘s hot stick man Ty Izadi hit a “bar south,” making the score to 4-3.

Amarillo‘s first-year head coach, Michael Hill pulled goalie Charles Antoine Girard with two and a half minutes left in the game. The IceRays responded with two empty net goals in the 70 seconds of the game, closing out the victory 6-3.

Gabe Seger played in Amarillo during the 2018-2019 season and was apart of the most prolific scoring line in the history of Amarillo hockey.

Along with linemates Logan Jeanuwine and Alex Peterson, this line scored a total of 238 points that season, an NAHL record, with Seger contributing 70 points to this historic effort. Seger went on to play three years of Division I college hockey at Union College.

Seger entered the transfer portal and completed his hockey career at Cornell University. Seger graduated from this very prestigious Ivy League college with honors and with an engineering degree. He was a finalist for the Hobey Baker award, the NCAA hockey equivalent to the Heisman Trophy. Seger was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings and reported to their AHL affiliate the Grand Rapids Griffins. He recently signed his second year contract, a very important step in minor league hockey. The AHL is the NHL equivalent to AAA to Major League Baseball. As a major contributor to this team, Seger has helped this organization to an AHL record start to this season. The Griffins are 22-1-0-1 throughout 24 games, thus marking the best start in AHL history and are on an 11 game winning streak.

Please listen for Tommy Tee‘s weekly recap of Amarillo Wranglers hockey on the “Drive at Five” with Lance Lahnert every Thursday afternoon at 5:00PM exclusively on 710 AM KGNC. Scheduled to appear on this weeks program is Ian Buors and Oleski Koval.