by Jarod Fillian

Wild Take Two Of Three On The Road

On Friday, the Wenatchee Wild traveled to Canada to face the Vancouver Giants at Langley Events Center. This game marked the second meeting of the year between these two teams. Wenatchee took the first head-to-head matchup on October 20th, where the Wild were victorious in a 3-2 overtime victory. The Wild came into the contest, winning four of their last five games.

Scoreless through 40 minutes of Play

The Wild and Giants had seven powerplay chances combined through two periods of play. Wenatchee had three powerplay opportunities, while Vancouver had four. Vancouver led the shot count 24-18 through two periods, but nothing found the net for either team.

Vancouver Struck On Their Fifth PowerPlay Chance And Took Control

4:16 into the third period, Wild forward Shaun Rios and Giants forward Cameron Schmidt would each receive two minutes for roughing, making it 4-on-4 hockey.Fifty-three3 seconds later, the Giants would go on a 4-on-3 powerplay on a Lukas McCloskey tripping call. 5:15 into the third and six seconds into the powerplay, the 0-0 deadlock would be broken as the Giants capitalized on their fifth powerplay of the night. Vancouver defenseman Ryan Lind fired a one-timer from the high slot that beat the Wild netminder Brendan Gee to make it 1-0 Vancouver.

Just under four minutes later,  Giants forward Jaden Lipinski fed a pass behind the Wild net to a wide-open Cameron Schmidt, doubling the Giants lead to 2-0. With 7:56 remaining in the contest, Ty Halaburda snuck the loose puck past Gee's pad to make it 3-0, which capped off the scoring. The Giants shutout the Wild 3-0 behind a 27 save shutout for Giants netminder Burke Hood, his first in his WHL career.

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Wild Looked To Bounce Back In Portland

The Wild shifted their focus to Saturday night as they got set to play the Portland Winterhawks at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The Wild lost both contests against the Winterhawks earlier in the year. Portland took down Wenatchee 6-3 on November 9th at the Town Toyota Center and on November 23rd by the score of 8-4 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Wenatchee’s Shaun Rios Gets Them Ahead After One With Two Goals

The Wild broke their scoreless drought dating back to Friday night on an odd-man rush with Wild forwards Maddix McCagherty and Shaun Rios in which Rios fired a one-timer past Portland netminder Ondrej Štěbeták to give the Wild a 1-0 lead. The Wild would double their lead on Tyson Jugnauth's delay of game penalty, making it a 5 on 3 powerplay for the Wild. Eight seconds into the powerplay, Rios sniped one from the right wing faceoff dot, doubling the Wild lead. With 34 seconds left in the first, Portland’s Jugnauth snapped a wrist shot that made its way through traffic past the glove of Wild netminder Brendan Gee to cut the lead to one after one period of play.

Teams Trade Goals In The Middle Period

Portland would tie the game on an odd-man rush opportunity in which Winterhawks forward Joel Plante fired a one-timer past Gee at the 2:49 mark of the second period. With 8:03 left in the second period, Wild captain Evan Friesen’s penalty shot restored the Wild lead. Friesen would get hooked by Jagnauth on a breakaway that resulted in a penalty shot for Friesen, which he capitalized, rattling one in the net to give the Wild their one-goal lead back heading into the final period.

Wild Pull Away In The Third To Secure The Win

The Wild took advantage of the powerplay once again. At the 9:26 mark, Wild forward Zane Saab shoved a second-chance rebound over the pad of Štěbeták to be up 4-2. Just over four minutes later, the Wild collected their third powerplay goal of the evening on a McCagherty snapshot from the left-wing circle with 6:22 remaining in the game. Portland pulled the goalie to make it 6 on 5 for the Winterhawks, but it didn’t work in their favor as Wild’s Rios fired a shot wide of the empty net, and the puck bounced right to Friesen, who banged it in for his second goal of the game. Friesen’s goal put the game out of reach. That goal got the Wild up 6-2, but Portland would get a shorthanded goal from Kyle McDonough with 1:49 left in the game, making it 6-3 and the final score.

Four Wenatchee players each collected a multi-point game. Reid Andresen collected two assists, Maddix McCagherty got a goal and an assist, Evan Friesen finished with two goals and an assist, and Shaun Rios tallied two goals and two assists. Wild goaltender Brendan Gee earned his second win of the year, stopping 18 of 21 Portland shots.

Wild Dominate Americans To Cap Off The Three-Game Weekend

The Wild made its last stop of the weekend at the Toyota Center in Kennewick, Washington, to face off against the Tri-City Americans. The Americans are coming off a 7-6 shootout victory over the Portland Winterhawks Friday night. This year, the Americans are 2-1 against the Wild, and both of their wins came in Wenatchee. So far, the home team has lost every single matchup this year.

The Wild Jumped Out To A Four Goal Lead After One

The Wild jumped out of the gates early at the 2:21 mark of the first period on the powerplay. Wild forward Shaun Rios found captain Evan Friesen, who snapped a quick wrister past Americans netminder Lukas Matecha to snag an early 1-0 lead. The Wild doubled their lead once again on the powerplay thanks to a five-minute major penalty for charging on Americans’ Carter MacAdams. 10:13 into the first period, Wild forward Deagan McMillan found Zane Saab for the tap-in goal, doubling the lead to 2-0. Wild’s Miles Cooper jammed in the loose puck that found the back of the net at the 12:48 mark of the first period, making it 3-0. Just over a minute later, Luka Shcherbyna would find the back of the net on a wrist shot that squeaked through Matecha, extending the lead to 4-0 for the Wild. For Americans netminder Matecha, that fourth goal allowed ended the night for him. Matecha stopped only 7 out of 11 Wenatchee shots. The Wild would carry a 4-0 lead into the locker room.

Wild Extend Their Lead More, Friesen Adds Three More Goals

The Americans would get one back 85 seconds as Americans forward Gavin Garland, who was crashing the net, collected a pass from Brandon Whynott, and Garland jammed the puck past Brendan Gee, cutting the Wild lead to three. The Wild would score three consecutive goals, all from the captain Friesen. Friesen would collect his second goal at the 2:37 mark on the back post, his hat trick goal at 6:08 on a backhand wrap-around, and his fourth goal banging in a rebound off a Reid Andresen point shot. All those goals made it 7-1, but with 2.9 seconds left, Tri-City found the back of the net from a shot from Whynott from the right circle to be down 7-2.

Wild Score Ten Goals In The Game, Three More In The Third Period

More scoring for the Wild came at 5:55 in the third period on a setup play from Cooper and Friesen, who found Rios for a one-timer on the backdoor. McCagherty cracked the scoresheet, sniping a shot from the right circle at 12:41. The tenth goal for Wenatchee came from Shcherbyna skating on the left wing snapped a shot that found its way past Americans backup netminder Nathan Preston that capped off a 10-2 victory for the Wild. For the Wild, 11 different skaters collected at least a point, with Friesen leading the way with a career-high five points (four goals and an assist). Scherbyna, Cooper, and Dunphy each had three points. Shcherbyna had two goals and an assist, Cooper had one goal and two helpers, and Dunphy had three assists. Wild netminder Gee made 23 saves to move to 3-1 on the season. The Wild winning two of three on the road moved them to 15-18-3-1. The Wild have won six of their past eight games since December 13th.

Wenatchee’s next game is on Friday, January 10th, when they play the Victoria Royals at the Town Toyota Center in Wenatchee at 7 p.m.