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WHL Wenatchee Wild

Geekie, Wild Charge Back in Portland for Historic 6-5 Overtime Win Saturday

December 3, 2023 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Wenatchee Wild News Release


Wenatchee Wild forward Conor Geekie
Wenatchee Wild forward Conor Geekie
(Wenatchee Wild, Credit: Keith Dwiggins/Portland Winterhawks)

PORTLAND, Ore. - The record book will say that the Wenatchee Wild tied a team record Saturday night in their first-ever visit to the Portland Winterhawks. While that may be true, the record book won't quite tell the entire story when all is said and done.

Down 5-1 entering the third period, Wenatchee's top line exploded for five unanswered goals to silence the Veterans Memorial Coliseum crowd and stun their hosts, with the Wild earning a 6-5 win in overtime. The last four of those goals came from Conor Geekie, who willed his team to a win in the Rose Quarter, earning the organization's first four-goal hat trick in nearly nine years and becoming the first in franchise history to score all four goals consecutively. It was the third time in the organization's history that the team has come back from down four goals for a win, and the first time doing so in four years.

Josh Davies got the Portland crowd settled in with the opening goal just 50 seconds out of the gate, sending one inside the net from the left wing and lodging it in the twine. With the Winterhawks on a power play and 2:26 on the first-period clock, Marcus Nguyen fired home a one-timer and put the hosts ahead 2-0 after one.

Dawson Seitz scored on a breakaway to trim the lead at 2:55 of the second, but the Winterhawks kept coming in the middle stanza. Davies tipped home a pass from Jack O'Brien on another Portland power play at the 4:34 mark, and Kyle McDonough found Tyson Yaremko on an odd-man rush with 6:03 left in the period to make it 4-1. After a fracas at the next whistle that saw 82 penalty minutes doled out, including two game misconducts, Diego Buttazzoni snapped a backdoor goal past Brendan Gee with 2:35 remaining in the period for a 5-1 Portland lead at the break.

Wenatchee was far from done - Matthew Savoie scored over Justen Maric's glove at 2:54 of the period, but the Wild made their decisive move with 6:50 remaining when Graham Sward's shot from the point was tipped past Maric by Geekie to cut the lead to 5-3. After scoring on the 5-on-4, Geekie added a 5-on-5 marker just off the edge of the slot with 5:18 left. He completed the hat trick with a point-blank wrister with 1:01 left in regulation, and carried the puck coast-to-coast for the overtime winner with 1:55 remaining in the extra session.

"Give our guys a lot of credit for staying with it, down 5-1," said associate head coach Chris Clark. "We lost our top pair of defensemen, one for five minutes, one for 10 minutes. Guys stepped up and played big minutes, and in the third period, [Geekie] and [Savoie] and those guys, they did what they do and here we are. Roy said, 'Let's get one in the first five minutes and make it a hockey game, and see what happens from there,' and the last eight to 10 minutes was bedlam."

The Wild won Saturday's game despite Portland advantages on the shot chart (44-37), at the faceoff dot (51-26) and on special teams, where the Winterhawks went 2-for-4 on the power play and killed off four of Wenatchee's five power plays. Sward added three assists to his total, and Kenta Isogai picked up two of his own. Savoie also finished with a big night, notching a goal and two assists. Gee set a new career mark with 39 saves, pushing Wenatchee to 18-8-3-0 on the season and nine straight games with at least one standings point. Davies led the Portland effort with his pair of goals, while three others also finished with multi-point efforts. Maric was tagged with the overtime loss despite 31 saves, as the Winterhawks dropped back to 15-8-1-1.

Wenatchee comes home to face the Tri-City Americans Sunday, presented by Riverside Payments, for a 4 p.m. puck drop. Sunday's game is also the latest game in the team's Sunday Funday promotion, presented by Fred Meyer. Tickets for that game and all home regular-season contests are on sale now at 509-888-7825, or by visiting the team office at Town Toyota Center. Updated news and information on Wild hockey are always available through the team's website and on the team's social media platforms on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

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Images from this story

Wenatchee Wild forward Conor Geekie
Wenatchee Wild forward Conor Geekie
(Keith Dwiggins/Portland Winterhawks)		   



Western Hockey League Stories from December 3, 2023


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