Fresno Edges Wild In Regular Season Finale
March 31, 2013 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Wenatchee Wild News Release
Fresno, CA. - Two goals in a 25 second span in the second period was the difference Saturday night, as the Fresno Monsters edged the Wenatchee Wild 3-1, in front of 4,674 at Selland Arena in Fresno, California.
Jacob McDowell opened the scoring for Fresno, snapping home a wrist shot, assisted by Dan Sherer and Karl Andersen at 5:52. At 11:10, Evan Schmidbauer (Surrey, British Columbia)tied it up for the Wild with a shot in close, his 14th goal of the season, with Nathan Flynn (Hastings, Minnesota) and Nicholas Kuchera (Eagan, Minnesota) drawing the assists. Both teams had opportunities from there, but the first period would end tied 1-1.
The Monsters regained the lead early in the second. Mitchell Snyder scored a second-chance, assisted by Matt Salituro and Gordon Wells at 1:48. Then, just 25 seconds later, at 2:13, Salituro zipped home a shot from the left wing. Andrew Herlofsky and Snyder assisted, giving Fresno a 3-1 lead.
The physical aspect of the game increased a bit in the third but the scoring did not and the Monsters skated away with the 3-1 win.
Wenatchee held a 25-20 advantage in shots on goal on the night. Robert Nichols (Dallas, Texas) and Nick Schmit (Fargo, North Dakota) shared time in net, combining to make 22 saves. Tomas Scholl had 19 stops for Fresno. The Wild was 0-for-2 on the power play and 4-of-4 on the penalty kill.
First period was a pretty even period" according to Wenatchee Head Coach Bliss Littler. "We just didn't do a good job in the locker room between the first and second. There was like a 40 minute intermission. They (Fresno) came out ready to play; we let up for a few minutes. We're a better team than that and after that I thought we played pretty well." As far as facing the Monsters in the first round of the playoffs, Littler said "Looking forward to this series. I know on paper it looks like it's been a very one-sided series, but all the games have been very close. I'm looking for a very hard fought series. As long as we play physical, we'll be a hard out."
The Wild opens the 2013 North American Hockey League playoffs at home, against the Fresno Monsters, on Friday and Saturday, April 12th and 13th. Game time is 7:05pm both nights at the Town Toyota Center. Individual and group game tickets are on sale now. Call 509.888.PUCK (7825) for more information.
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