Langley, B.C. – The Wenatchee
Wild shot out to a 4-goal, first period lead Tuesday, then were forced to
overtime, where a lucky bounce found the back of the net, giving the Wild a 7-6
win over the Langley Rivermen and a 2 games to 1 lead in the best of seven series, in a game played at
the George Preston Recreation Centre in Langley, British Columbia..
Charlie Combs (St. Louis, MO) scored on the power play at 4:38, assisted by Mike Coyne (Buffalo, NY) and Colin Burston (Winnipeg, MB), giving
Wenatchee a 1-0 lead. Combs would score again moments later, assisted by Brendan Harris (Las Vegas, NV) at 6:04,
putting the Wild up 2-0. Then, Daniel
Nachbaur (Seattle, WA) scored, assisted by Matt Baker (Midhurst, ON) and Brandon
Puricelli (St. Louis, MO) at 12:18, to make it 3-0 Wenatchee. Combs would
complete the hat trick off a feed from Harris at 13:31 and the Wild were up
4-0. Langley would then strike twice. Jason O’Neill scored from Jordan
Schneider and Zac Masson at 15:14 and Torrin White scored from William Campion
on the power play at 16:07. Those goals cut the Wenatchee lead to 4-2 after
one.
The Rivermen would forge a tie with a pair of goals in the
second. Ryan Barrow scored from O’Neill and Cameron Ginetti at 6:36, and then
White scored on the power play from Matty Saharchuk and Matthew Graham at 7:53,
tying the game 4-4. The Wild would then score twice to regain the two-goal
lead. Baker scored from Tyler Rockwell (San
Jose, CA) at 8:49 to make it 5-4 Wenatchee. Then, August Von Ungern (Boise, ID) scored, helped by Troy Conzo (Nesconset, NY) at 11:09,
giving Wenatchee a 6-4 lead after 40 minutes.
In the third, Langley scored twice more to tie it once again.
Graham scored from Max Kaufman and Alec Capstick at 4:32, and then Justin Szeto
scored from Dominic Franco and Zac Masson at 16:08, tying the game 6-6 and
forcing overtime.
The overtime, however, was over in less than a minute. Kyle Stephan (Barrie, ON) rushed
through the right wing circle, and then from behind the goal line, threw the
puck to the front of the net. There, it bounced off a defenseman and in. The
unassisted goal, coming just 18 seconds into the extra session, gave the Wild
the 7-6 win.
Wenatchee outshot the Rivermen 33-31 for the game. Garrett Nieto (Yorba Linda, CA) and Chase Perry (Andover, MN) combined to
make 25 saves for the Wild, while Bo Didur and Nickolas Trenciansky teamed for
26 stops for Langley. Wenatchee went 1-for-4 on the power play and 2-of-4 on
the penalty kill. “We faced a lot of adversity in many forms.” said Wenatchee
Wild Head Coach/General Manager Bliss Littler. “We found a way to win.”
The Wild now lead the first round, best-of-seven series 2 games
to 1. The series remains in Langley for games Wednesday and Friday, March 9th
and 11th, 7:00pm each night. If the series extends beyond that,
games 6 and 7, if needed, would be in Wenatchee on Sunday, March 13th
at 8:05pm PDT and Monday, March 14th at 7:05pm.
Battle For The Border
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