Wild Battle Killer Bees
October 13, 2014 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Wenatchee Wild News Release
The Wenatchee Wild are continuing their season in Hidalgo, Texas this weekend as they take on the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees in a two game series. Last night was a hard fought battle between the Killer Bees and the Wild that resulted not only in an overtime with everyone tied up at 3 but a shootout had to be put in place to settle the final score; which ended 4-3 in favor of Rio Grande Valley. The Wild have definitely found a new level of strength in their game and are constantly putting pressure on their opponents. They are playing a larger and more aggressive game and it is working to their advantage almost every shift. Every skater is owning the ice each time they leave the bench and are taking every opportunity they can to rush the puck or to get a shot on goal. In fact Wenatchee out-shot the Killer Bees every period resulting in 37 shots on goal compared to the Killer Bees' 25.
In the first period at the State Farm Arena, there was no scoring.
Wenatchee started the scoring game in the second period when Donovan Ott lit the lamp against Killer Bees goaltender Nick Schmit at the 10:11 mark. Mike Coyne picked up the assist. Brendan Harris put the Wild up 2-0 at 17:12 with his goal in the middle frame. Jake Ahlgren was given an assist. Rio Grande Valley got on the board 34 seconds later when Killer Bee #28 Dan Kucerovy found the back of Wenatchee's net with help from #21 Anthony Croston and #8 Dallas Gerads.
To start off the third period, Anthony Croston tied the game at 2's with his goal 3 minutes and 31 seconds into the frame. #25 Stathis Soumelidis and #11 Parker Wood helped out Croston with this goal. Soumelidis gave the Bees a 3-2 lead at 7:35 when he netted one for Rio Grande with the help of Croston and Wood. Brendan Harris scored the last goal of regulation time at 18:56. His unassisted goal tied everything at 3.
There was no scoring in the overtime period, forcing a shootout.
Here were the results of the shootout:
Rio Grande Valley:
Dan Kucerovy - No
Kyle Stephan - No
Parker Wood - No
Brendan Dunning - No
Anthony Croston - No
Dean Balsamo - Yes
Wenatchee:
Jake Ahlgren - No
David Powlowski - No
Brendan Harris - No
Tyler Rockwell - No
Donovan Ott - No
Mike Coyne - No
Wenatchee recorded only two penalties during this matchup. They were Boarding (Mitch Demario) and Delay of Game (Ryan Gotelaere). Michael Bullion was in the cage for Wenatchee and he was able to save 21 shoots on goal out of 24.
"This was a tough game one to take. We made some strides forward. But some of the same lack of compete at the wrong time hurt us. Need to have some players step up tomorrow," stated Coach Littler after the final result of the game.
The Wild will take on the Killer Bees tonight at 7:30 pm CST (5:30 pm PST) at the State Farm Arena for the final game of this series. If you can, tune into FASTHockey to support your Wild!
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