Surrey, BC. – The Wenatchee
Wild continued their Mainland Division road swing Friday night, coming from
behind to defeat the Surrey Eagles 4-3 at the South Surrey Arena.
The game started out as a tight checking affair, before Matt Baker (Midhurst, ON) lit the lamp
at 9:51. The unassisted goal gave the Wild a 1-0 lead after one.
Surrey would tie the game in the second. Jeffrey Stewart scored,
assisted by Nick Azar at 6:19 and it was 1-1 after two.
In the third, it took Surrey just 13 seconds to grab the lead. Jaxon
Joseph scored off the rush, with Azar drawing the assist, putting the Eagles up
2-1. However, Wenatchee would answer with three straight goals to go back on
top. August Von Ungern (Boise, ID)
scored from Baker and Daniel Nachbaur
(Seattle, WA) at 6:30, then Von Ungern scored from Baker at 6:50, giving the
Wild a 3-2 lead. Wenatchee appeared to seal the deal late, as Brendan Harris (Las Vegas, NV) scored an
unassisted, shorthanded, empty net goal at 18:52, putting the Wild on top, 4-2.
But, as it turned out, that goal was very important. Surrey, who remained on
the power play, got a goal from Joseph, assisted by Kurt Black and Austin
Anselmo at 19:27. The goal brought the Eagles within one, but they could get no
closer, as Wenatchee held on for the 4-3 win.
The Wild outshot Surrey 27-20 on the night. Chase Perry (Andover, MN) made 17 saves for Wenatchee, while Justin
Laforest had 23 stops for the Eagles. The Wild went 0-for-4 on the power play
and 5-of-6 on the penalty kill. “It’s nice to get a greasy win, when we definitely
didn’t play very well tonight.” said Wenatchee Wild Head Coach/General Manager
Bliss Littler. “Definitely had too many passengers. Lucky the bus wasn’t one of
those Flintstone busses, where you have to use your legs, because we had a lot
of passengers not working tonight. As a staff, we’re going to have to do better
getting our guys ready to go tomorrow night. Again, big battle with Langley.
Really, it’s a battle for home ice. Our next three are against Langley; we need
to be ready to get that first one tomorrow.”
With the win, the Wild improves to 26-15-2-3 on the season; Surrey
falls to 6-37-0-2. Wenatchee stays out on the road for one more game, Saturday,
January 30th, at the Langley Rivermen, before returning home to host
Langley for a pair of games on Friday and Saturday, February 5th and
6th, 7:05pm both nights at the Town Toyota Center.
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