WENATCHEE WA – Carter Woodside shined in his starting debut as a Prince George Spruce King, making 31 saves, and Evan Orr added a tally, however, it was not enough as the Spruce Kings fell 2-1 to the Wenatchee Wild.
In the opening period, the Spruce Kings had great energy and had the game’s first four shots towards goaltender Daniel Chenard. Wenatchee then had probably the best chance of the period on a tic tac toe passing play that was eventually whacked out of harm’s way by Kolton Cousins to keep the game scoreless. There was no score after the opening twenty-minutes.
In the second period, it was the Wild who struck first. At 6:45 Nick Cafarelli found the puck on his stick with not much room and roofed it over Woodside to give Wenatchee a 1-0 lead in the second period. Wenatchee had some very good chances after the Cafarelli marker, but Woodside made some big time saves on a pair of odd man rushes to keep the game at 1-0 after two periods of play.
In the third, it took just 2:20 into the period for the Wild to add to their lead. Matt Dorsey wheeled into the attacking zone and let a rocket go top shelf that beat Woodside to give Wenatchee a 2-0 lead. The Spruce Kings would be able to respond. After a 2 on 1 with Nick Bochen and Jaxon Steele, the puck came back to Evan Orr who let a rocket go from the point and made no mistake, beating Chenard on the glove side to get the Spruce Kings on the board to make it 2-1. Orr’s fourth of the year came at 5:24 with Jaxon Steele and Nick Bochen getting the assists.
The Spruce Kings were then forced to bring Woodside to the bench to bring out the extra attacker in the final seconds. Prince George chipped and whacked away in the blue paint but Chenard and the Wenatchee defenders were able to protect the house and the Wild were able to hold on to a 2-1 win.
Next up for the Spruce Kings are the Penticton Vees on Wednesday night at the South Okanagan Events Centre. You can catch all of the action on 93.1 CFIS or on HockeyTV. It will be a brief pre-game starting at 6:25, with play by play at 6:30.
3 STARS
- Matt Dorsey ( 1 G 1 A ) (WEN)
- Nick Cafarelli (1 G) (WEN)
- Daniel Chenard (19 Saves) (WEN)
FORTIS ENERGY PLAYER OF THE GAME : Evan Orr (1 G) (PG)
