Wenatchee, WA. – The
Wenatchee Wild came out firing on all cylinders Saturday night, snapping a
3-game slide in the process with an 8-1 win over the Coquitlam Express before
an opening night crowd of 3,723 at the Town Toyota Center.
In the first, Tyler
Rockwell (San Jose, CA) scored five-hole from the right circle, off assists
from Blake Christensen (Lauderhill,
FL) and Kyle Stephan (Barrie, ON) at
4:01. The power play goal put the Wild up 1-0. Christensen would add to the
lead just over three minutes later, scoring top shelf from the right circle,
assisted by Matt Burchill
(Marshfield, MA) at 7:41, upping the lead to 2-0. The lead would grow some more
late in the period, as August Von Ungern
(Boise, ID) snapped one home from the left circle. The unassisted goal, coming
at 18:20, gave Wenatchee a 3-0 lead after one.
The Express would score off the opening draw of the second
period to get back in the game. Jackson Cressey scored from Taylor Green at 7
seconds, making it a 3-1 game. However, the Wild would get that one back and
more. Joe Drabin (Rochester, NY)
scored from Hunter Alden (Walla
Walla, WA) at 9:27, increasing the lead to 4-1. Then, in the final minute of
the period, Brandon Puricelli (St.
Louis, MO.) scored off a nice feed from behind the net by Josh Bell (St. Louis, MO) at 19:36. Rockwell also assisted on the
goal, giving Wenatchee a 5-1 lead through 40 minutes.
The Wild would add three more in the third. Drabin would
score from Von Ungern and Burchill at 2:15 to make it 6-1. The lead grew to 7-1
at 5:49 on a Brendan Harris (Las
Vegas, NV) goal, assisted by Christensen and Aaron Murray (Chino, CA). Wenatchee’s Christensen would round out
the scoring, assisted by Harris at 12:56 and the Wild would go on from there to
the 8-1 win.
Wenatchee outshot Coquitlam 48-25. Chase Perry (Andover, MN) made 24 saves for the Wild, who went
1-for-2 on the power play and 4-of-4 on the penalty kill. Lawson Fenton made 40
saves for the Express. “Tonight, right from the warmup, there was a lot of
energy in the building.” said Wenatchee Wild Associate Coach Tom Rudrud. “I
think our guys played off of that. We played with a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of
urgency and as a result we were able to put some pucks behind their goaltender.”
With the win, Wenatchee improves to 6-2-1-0 on the season,
while Coquitlam slips to 5-5-1-1. The Wild hosts the Powell River Kings on
Sunday, October 11th Saturday, October 10th, with faceoff at the
Town Toyota Center set for 7:05pm PDT. Tickets are available at the door, at
the Wild office, or by calling 509-888-7825 or 509-888-7274.
Battle For The Border
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