Late Rally Falls Short As Wild Falls To West Kelowna

Wenatchee, WA. – The Wenatchee Wild nearly dug themselves out of a three-goal hole Thursday night but fell just short, losing to the West Kelowna Warriors 4-3, in front of 2,510 at the Town Toyota Center.

West Kelowna scored twice in the first period. Tanner Campbell scored from Quin Foreman and Liam Blackburn at 6:17, then Connor Sodergren scored, assisted by Jared Marino at 9:31, putting the Warriors on top after one, 2-0.

In the second, Wenatchee cut the deficit in half as Matt Baker (Midhurst, ON) scored from Brandon Puricelli (St. Louis, MO) and Bryan Yoon (Parker, CO) at 6:01, bringing the Wild within one, at 2-1. West Kelowna would respond however with a Jonathan Desbiens power play goal, assisted by Kylar Hope and Liam Blackburn at 15:52, putting the Warriors up 3-1 after two.

West Kelowna would get what proved to be the difference maker halfway through the third, as Hope scored shorthanded from Brett Mennear at 9:59, giving the Warriors a 4-1 lead. Wenatchee would make a charge late though. Baker scored on the power play from August Von Ungern (Boise, ID) and Brendan Harris (Las Vegas, NV) at 14:04, making it a 4-2 game. Then, with the goaltender off for an extra attacker, Mike Coyne (Buffalo, NY) scored from Dakota Raabe (Dana Point, CA) and Tyler Rockwell (San Jose, CA) at 18:10 to draw the Wild within one, at 4-3. However, West Kelowna would hold on from there, skating away with the 4-3 win.

The Warriors outshot Wenatchee 37-26 on the night. Chase Perry (Andover, MN) made 33 stops for the Wild, while Keelan Williams had 23 saves for West Kelowna. Wenatchee went 1-for-3 with a shorthanded goal against on the power play and 1-of-2 on the penalty kill. “Wasn’t a horrible effort, but I guess I describe it as a soft effort.” said Wenatchee Wild Head Coach/General Manager Bliss Littler. “I thought we created some offensive chances but we didn’t fight hard enough to capitalize any second chances. And defensively, their defense worked a little bit harder than we worked. That was the difference in the hockey game tonight.”

With the win, the Warriors improve to 15-9-0-2 on the season, the Wild fall to 16-7-2-2. Wenatchee continues their 4-game home stand Friday, November 27^th against the Trail Smoke Eaters at the Town Toyota Center. Faceoff is set for 7:05pm PST.

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