Late Rally Lifts Wild over Ice Dogs

January 5, 2013 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Wenatchee Wild News Release


WENATCHEE, Wash. - Friday night's series-opening game at theTown Toyota Center between the Fairbanks Ice Dogs and Wenatchee Wild was adefensive battle with a small scoring flurry in the final 8:16 of regulation. Inthe end the Wild earned the win, 2-1, thanks to a pair of unansweredeven-strength goals over the final six-plus minutes of regulation.

During a man-advantage, Ice Dog Patrick Newell scored thefirst goal of the game with 8:16 remaining in regulation when he lit the lampon a double-clutch wrist shot from the low inside corner of the near faceoffcircle on a pass from Jacob Hetz. Garret Clemment also assisted.

Newell's goal failed to deflate the Wild, who turned up theintensity over the remainder of regulation and, aided by a little puck luck,earned the 2-1 win in regulation.

Defenseman JoshHartley (Coquitlam, British Columbia) tied up the game for the Wild lessthan two minutes after Newell's marker when he tickled the twine on a wristerfrom the slot that beat netminder Steve Perry stick side. Nicholas Kuchera (Eagan, Minn.) and Nathan Flynn (Hastings, Minn.) assisted on the game-tying goal.

Max McHugh (Edgewood,Wash.), who had a couple of scoring chances earlier in the game, notched thegame-winner for the Wild with 4:50 remaining in the third stanza. Working rightto left in front of the goal, McHugh attempted a backdoor feed, but the passwas deflected and McHugh picked up the biscuit and scored his 10th goal of theseason from point-blank range.

"Both teams played pretty well defensively," said Wild headcoach Bliss Littler. "There reallyweren't a lot of scoring chances either way. We got a little bit lucky tonightwith the puck. ... We need to be better [Saturday]."

Wenatchee went 0-for-6 on the power play, including a0-for-2 effort early in the first period that included a brief 2-man advantage.Fairbanks scored one power-play goal on five chances.

Robert Nichols(Dallas, Texas) made 25 saves on 26 shots to earn his 20th win of the season.Perry made 21 saves on 23 shots.

Game 2 of this weekend's series between the Wild (24-4-2)and Ice Dogs (21-10-1) is Saturday. Faceoff is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. Ticketscan be purchased by calling 509.888.PUCK (7825).

"I would expect both teams will create more offense[Saturday]," Littler said. "Maybe both teams showed too much respect [Friday]."



North American Hockey League Stories from January 5, 2013


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central