Wenatchee, WA. – The
Wenatchee Wild scored twice in the second period then slugged their way to
victory over the Surrey Eagles Friday 2-1, in front of 3,312 at the Town Toyota
Center.
After a scoreless first period, Wenatchee’s Mike Coyne (Buffalo, NY) scored from
straight out in front at 30 seconds, assisted by Dakota Raabe (Dana Point, CA) and Aaron Murray (Chino, CA). The goal, which brought a flood of bears
and other assorted stuffed animals flying onto the ice, gave the Wild a 1-0
lead. Surrey would tie it up just shy of the midway point of the period, as
Kurt Black would score from Darius Davidson at 9:08, squaring the game at 1-1.
Then, late in the period, Kyle Stephan
(Barrie, ON) would blast a one-timer from the left circle, off assists from Bryan Yoon (Parker, CO) and Tyler Rockwell (San Jose, CA) at 17:05.
The power play goal, coming on a 4-on-3 man-advantage, gave Wenatchee a 2-1
lead through 40 minutes.
There was no scoring in the third but plenty of physical
play, keeping the fans on the edge of their seats throughout. Both teams would
have solid scoring opportunities but all were turned away and the Wild held on
for the 2-1 victory.
Wenatchee outshot the Eagles 44-25 on the night. Garrett Nieto (Yorba Linda, CA) made 24
stops for the Wild, while Justin Laforest had 42 saves for the Eagles. The Wild
went 1-for-5 on the power play and 3-of-3 on the penalty kill. “It’s nice to
end up on the right side of that one.” said Wenatchee Wild Head Coach/General
Manager Bliss Littler. “You could see Surrey got pretty charged up playing in
front of a big crowd, something that they don’t get at home, so I think we got
their best effort and their goaltender played awful well. I think that kept the
score close the first 30 minutes, then I thought the last 30 minutes was a bit
of a war. We lost a couple of kids for fighting, they lost a couple of kids. It
was good to see our team grind one out.”
With the win, Wenatchee improves to 18-8-2-2 on the season, the
Eagles fall to 5-24-0-0. The Wild opens a stretch of four in a row on the road
on Saturday, December 5th at the Trail Smoke Eaters. Faceoff is set
for 7:30pm PST.
Battle For The Border
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