Wild Take Game 2 and 2-0 Series Lead

Prince George had a valiant effort on Saturday night against the Wenatchee Wild, and had a number of scoring chances, but couldn’t convert. The Wild took a while to get rolling, but scored two goals 1:24 a part in the second, and a pair in 4:06 minutes in the third to take the final score 4-1. That made it a record of 28-0-2 in the Town Toyota Center this season for the American squad.

Escaping the first period tied 0-0 the night prior, the Spruce Kings wouldn’t be as lucky Sunday as they trailed 3-0 going to the second. Early hits by Tyler Anderson and Adam Burnett upset the Wild, and when Burston came up swinging against Burnett, it looked as if the Spruce Kings were off to the power play. Instead Keegan Ward joined Burston in the box, and 1:12 later Hovde went to the box for the Spruce Kings. Prince George would get the two best opportunities as Brett Mennear was stopped for a partial breakaway, and his first shot was stopped, and then scooping up the puck behind the net fed the puck out front for Brar who got a good shot off.

After the media timeout, Dakota Raabe opened the scoring for the second game in a row. A puck was loose in the crease, and he was able to scoop the puck into the net. 20 seconds later at 11:37 the Wild struck again with Brian Williams scoring his first goal of the series. On a late power play, Colin Buston was able to score to make it 3-0 with 4:43 left in the period.

Brendan Harris ran wild in the second as he scored a pair to put his team up 5-0 after two. The first goal came right before the media timeout, as AJ Vanderbeck passed the puck to his left on a two-on-one and Harris finished beating Grant on the near side. He would double his goal output with 4:21 to go as the Spruce Kings 4^th line got caught on an icing. The Wild put out their top group of Harris, Charlie Combs, and Brian Williams looking to take advantage. Held pointless in the first game, and halfway through the second, Combs finally broke through as he fed the puck backdoor for Harris to score.

Down 5-0 heading to the third, it was going to be a tough comeback for the Spruce Kings. They would break the goose egg 6:12 into the period, when on the power play a point shot from Tyler Anderson made it’s way through traffic in front of the net. It hit something in front, and made it’s way past Anthony Yamnitsky. Things were scrappy all game, and continued to be so for the final 10 minutes. Both teams had a number of players ejected as Tyler Anderson, Ben Brar, and Brett Mennear were sent off from Prince George along with Matthew Baker, Colin Burston, and Logan Milliken from the Wild. Late in the game Chong Hyun Lee took an undetected high stick, and frustrated skated past Dakota Raabe who was on the ground, and knocked the stick away getting him tossed as well.

With 12 seconds remaining in the game, alternate captain Chris Jones had a point shot beat Grant to cap the scoring at 6-1.

The win gave Wenatchee a 2-0 series lead heading to Prince George. The two teams will have a day to travel on Monday, and then restart their playoff series Tuesday for Game 3. Prince George will host on Tuesday and Wednesday, then Friday as well if a Game 5 is necessary.