Wild Overcomes Deficit To Beat Langley

Langley, BC. – The Wenatchee Wild finished their Mainland Division road swing in impressive fashion Saturday night, coming from behind to defeat the Langley Rivermen 5-2 in front of 1,530 fans at the Langley Events Centre.

Despite some solid play in the first period, the Wild found themselves on the short end of a 2-0 deficit. Justin Szeto scored from Ryan Barrow at 9:34, and then Jason O’Neill scored from Barrow and Jordan Schneider at 16:35, giving Langley a 2-0 lead after one.

Wenatchee would begin the comeback in the second period. Kyle Stephen (Barrie, ON) roofed a shot to the glove side, assisted by Brendan Harris (Las Vegas, NV) and Konsta Jaske (Sammamish, WA) at 1:27 and then Dakota Raabe (Dana Point, CA) banged one home in the goalmouth, assisted by August Von Ungern (Boise, ID) and Harris at 5:17, tying the game 2-2 through 40 minutes.

The Wild would complete the comeback in the third. Blake Christensen (Lauderhill, FL) cut from the slot to the right circle, where he would fire home a wrister. Daniel Nachbaur (Seattle, WA) assisted at 2:03, putting Wenatchee on top, 3-2. Then, just over a minute later, Von Ungern would score on a deflection, assisted by Colin Burston (Winnipeg, MN) and Austin Chavez (Corona, CA) at 3:04, giving the Wild a 4-2 lead. Mike Coyne (Buffalo, NY) would finish off the scoring with a tap-in goal, off assists from Burston and Jaske at 8:04 and Wenatchee would go on from there for the 5-2 win.

The Wild outshot the Rivermen 29-25 on the night. Chase Perry (Andover, MN) made 23 saves for Wenatchee, while Nickolas Trenciansky had 24 stops for Langley. The Wild went 1-for-5 on the power play and 4-of-4 on the penalty kill. “Overall, I thought it was a pretty good effort,” said Wenatchee Wild Head Coach/General Manager Bliss Littler. “for our third game in four days. I thought our energy level was pretty good. We got down 2-nothing, scored five unanswered. Chase Perry played very well to keep it right where it was at. I thought we got our feet going, I thought we made some plays, so it’s nice to beat a team that we’re battling for that second spot.”

With the win, Wenatchee improves to 27-15-2-3 on the season; the Rivermen fall to 26-18-2-1. The Wild returns home to host Langley for a pair of games on Friday and Saturday, February 5^th and 6^th, 7:05pm both nights at the Town Toyota Center.

Battle For The Border