West Kelowna Power Plays Doom Wild

The Wenatchee Wild began play this week as the least penalized team in the BCHL but a rash of uncharacteristic penalties lead to four West Kelowna power play goals as the Warriors upended the Wild 5-2 on Wednesday night at Royal LePage Place.

For the second game in a row, Wenatchee outshot their opponent by a 2 to 1 margin (42-20), a stat all the more eyebrow raising due to the amount of time the Wild spent killing penalties. It was a power play goal that got the Warriors on the board, a redirection less than five minutes into the game. West Kelowna doubled their lead in the second period, again on the power play as the Wild were unable to clear a quirky rebound but Max Bulawka was able to tuck it in behind Cal Sandquist. Wenatchee got on the board when Blake Bargar got a piece of a Jacob Modry shot, deflecting it over the glove hand of Connor Hopkins with 2:01 left in the second. The Wild swarmed as the period wound down, but trailed 2-1 at the buzzer. Early in the third, Wenatchee came out with a spirited attack, and pulled even on a heavy Matt Gosiewski shot from the left circle at 1:41. But five West Kelowna power plays in the third period alone turned the tide. A 5-on-3 power play goal that fluttered up and over Sandquist put the Warriors on top to stay. While even strength 4-on-4, Lucas Cullen was able to slip a shot home from the right circle for a 4-2 lead, then on still another Warriors power play, Chase Dubois snapped home a one-timer from the left circle on the short side for the 5-2 final margin.

Wenatchee (4-3-0) heads next to Vernon to face the Vipers (2-2-2). The game will be available for FREE video streaming as the BCHL Game of the Week on HockeyTV, and broadcast live on NewsRadio 560 KPQ with the Pregame Show airing at 6:45 pm.