Wild Unbeaten Streak Ends In Loss At West Kelowna

West Kelowna, BC. – The Wenatchee Wild led after 40 minutes but couldn’t withstand a third-period rally Saturday by the home team, losing to the West Kelowna Warriors 4-2 in BCHL action at Royal LePage Place in West Kelowna, British Columbia.

West Kelowna led 1-0 after one, on a Kyle Marino goal, assisted by Kylar Hope just 45 seconds from the end of the period.

In the second, two power play goals would give the Wild the lead. The first came from Brendan Harris (Las Vegas, NV), off assists from August Von Ungern (Boise, ID) and Matt Baker (Midhurst, ON) at 1:10, tying the game 1-1. The second was scored by Mike Coyne (Buffalo, NY), assisted by Tyler Rockwell (San Jose, CA) and Kyle Stephan (Barrie, ON) at 10:04, putting Wenatchee on top, 2-1 through 40 minutes.

In the third, the Warriors scored three times. At 6:50 Hope scored from Kyle Marino, tying the game 2-2. Then, Garrett Forster put West Kelowna on top with a goal just 19 seconds later, assisted by Jonathan Desbiens and Scott Allan at 7:09, putting the Warriors up 3-2. Finally, Liam Blackburn scored an unassisted, shorthanded goal at 17:40 and West Kelowna would hold on from there for the 4-2 win.

The Warriors outshot the Wild 25-18 on the night. Garrett Nieto (Yorba Linda, California), in his BCHL debut, made 21 saves for Wenatchee, while Stephen Heslop had 16 saves for West Kelowna. The Wild went 2-for-10 with a shorthanded goal against on the power play and were a perfect 5-of-5 on the penalty kill, giving them 15 consecutive penalty kills over the past three-plus games. “We got taught a good lesson tonight.” said Wenatchee Wild Head Coach/General Manager Bliss Littler. “When you show up to play in the BCHL, it’s a 60-minute hockey game. You need to make a commitment and sacrifice for 60 minutes and tonight we were a little bit shy of that.”

With the loss, Wenatchee is now 5-1-1-0 on the season, while the Warriors improve to 5-3-0-0. The Wild plays at 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.

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