Wild Come Back To Gain 4-4 Tie At Salmon Arm

Salmon Arm, BC. – The Wenatchee Wild found themselves down at the end of the second for the first time this season, but battled back and grabbed a 4-4 double-overtime tie against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks Friday night, in front of 1,135 at the Shaw Centre in Salmon Arm, British Columbia.

The Wild led 1-0 after one on an August Von Ungern (Boise, ID) goal, assisted by Matt Baker (Midhurst, ON) and Blake Christensen (Naples, FL) at 6:24. The power play goal gave Wenatchee a 1-0 lead through 20 minutes.

In the second, Salmon Arm scored three times, twice a man down. They would score a 5-on-5 goal at 9:25, as Nick Hutchison scored from Jared Turcotte, knotting the score 1-1. The Silverbacks would take the lead moments later, as Colton Thibault scored from Brett Stewart at 10:50, putting the home team on top, 2-1. The Wild tied the game on a Von Ungern goal, his second of the night. Logan Milliken (Canmore, AB) and Troy Conzo (Nesconset, NY) assisted at 15:57, squaring the contest at 2-2. Salmon Arm regained the lead late, as Taro Hinose scored from Ross Heidt at 18:35, giving the Silverbacks a 3-2 lead after two.

Moving on to the third, Matt Baker (Midhurst, ON) scored an unassisted goal at the 14:29 mark, tying the game 3-3. Salmon Arm would regain the lead just over a minute later, as Stewart scored, off assists by Ryley Booth and Turcotte at 15:51. That goal put the ‘backs on top at 4-3. But, with just over two minutes to play, Conzo took a pass from Bryan Yoon (Parker, CO) and scored five-hole at 17:54, tying the game for Wenatchee 4-4.

The two teams then battled through two five-minute overtime periods, the first played 4-on-4, the second 3-on-3, but neither team could score the winner and the game ended in the 4-4 tie.

Shots were tied 35-35. Chase Perry (Andover, MN), playing his sixth consecutive game, stopped 31 shots for the Wild , as did Angus Redmond for Salmon Arm. Wenatchee went 1-for-5 on the power play with two short-handed goals against and 3-of-3 on the penalty kill. “Two pretty evenly matched teams tonight.” said Wenatchee Wild Head Coach/General Manager Bliss Littler. “Happy we were able to find a way to come back from being down a couple of times and it’s also tough when you lose a special teams battle. We gave up two shorties tonight. We did score a power play goal, a little unlucky on the power play tonight. The one shot went off our guy’s helmet, they ended up getting a breakaway and scoring. Second one we were breaking the puck out and we stepped on their stick and fell down, they picked the puck up and scored. We were just a little unlucky, but overall pretty proud of the effort, that we found a way to battle back and pick up a point.”

With the tie, Wenatchee is now 5-0-1-0 on the season, while the Silverbacks move to 4-1-2-0. The Wild plays at West Kelowna on Saturday, October 3^rd, then Langley on Friday, October 9^th, before playing their home opener against the Coquitlam Express on Saturday, October 10^th, with faceoff at the Town Toyota Center set for 7:05pm PDT. Tickets are available at the Wild office, or by calling 509-888-7825.