Intense Kenai/Wenatchee Series Sees 5-2 Wild Final
November 2, 2014 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Wenatchee Wild News Release
After a tough battle with Kenai River last night, the Wenatchee Wild have evened out the series 1-1 with a 5-2 victory over the Kenai River Brown Bears. Harris, Burston, Gotelaere, Powlowski, and Bondarenko lit the lamp for Wenatchee to bring home a win for their in-house audience of 2,722 as well as two more points for the league standings. This game was a great example of the team buckling down, bearing their teeth, and showing dominance on the ice. Tomorrow night will be the final game of this series and it should be quite the showdown. This victory was exactly the spark the Wild needed to start off the season in their usual fast pace.
Ivan Bondarenko struck first blood in this game four minutes and sixteen seconds into the first period. With help from Mitch Demario and Brendan Harris, Bondarenko was able to give the Wild an early lead. At 9:57, David Powlowski beat Kenai goaltender Alec Derks to give Wenatchee a 2-0 lead heading into the first intermission. Dakota Raabe and Stevie Bryant were given assists on this goal.
Ryan Gotelaere opened the scoring game for the second period with his goal only 23 seconds into the frame. Jake Ahlgren and Brendan Harris assisted on this geno. Ten minutes and five seconds into the period, Kenai got on the board when Colton Fletcher found the back of the Wild net with help from Ben Campbell and Tyler Andrews.
At the 4:50 mark, Kenai scored the first goal of the third period but their last goal of the game from the stick of Austin Chavez. Austin had help from Gustav Berglund and Joseph Kaszupski. Five minutes and forty eight seconds into the period, Colin Burston scored an unassisted goal to lift the Wild up 4-2. The last goal of the game was scored at 10:54 when Brendan Harris, with help from Jake Ahlgren, found the back of Kenai's cage to lead the Wild to a 5-2 final.
Wenatchee ended the night with 6 penalties and 23 penalty minutes. Penalties went to Mitch Demario (Hooking), Colin Burston (Roughing), Ivan Bondarenko (Slashing) and to Mike Coyne (High Sticking) (Fighting (Major)) (Fighting (Misconduct)) who racked up 17 PIMs at 13:49 in the third period with his fight against Austin Chavez. The Wild outshot the Brown Bears 24 (6,10,8) to 22 (8,7,7).
Zach Quinn was between the pipes tonight and was able to save 20 shot on goal out of 22 while being in the net for the full 60 minutes.
In order, Brendan Harris (1st), Ivan Bondarenko (2nd), and Zach Quinn (3rd) all took home the Stars of the Game.
After this win over Kenai, Coach Littler said, "Regrouped with a closer to 60 minute effort. The line of Harris, Ahlgren, and Bondarenko was fun to watch and we had a nice effort out of Zach Quinn in net. Big test tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing how we come out and compete."
Make sure to grab your tickets or tune into FASTHockey tomorrow night at 5:05 pm PST because when the Wild take on the Brown Bears in the Town Toyota Center, this will be a game of epic proportions. After the fight tonight and the series now evened, the series winner is anybody's chance for the taking. Both teams are sure to be out in full force.
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