Wild deals North Stars first loss
Published on September 17, 2010 under North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Wenatchee Wild News Release
BLAINE, Minn. - The Traverse City North Stars entered Friday's game at the Showcase Tournament in Blaine, Minn., against the Wenatchee Wild sporting some rather impressive numbers. The North Stars were a perfect 3-0 overall and 2-0 at the tournament. Even more impressive, North Stars goaltender Tyler Marble had yet to give up a single goal at the tournament.
The Wild needed just 62 seconds Friday to get a puck past Marble en route to an eventual 5-2 victory. With the win, the Wild improved to 2-1 at the Showcase Tournament with its fourth and final game of the NAHL's lid-lifting tournament on tap for tomorrow.
Breaking into the North Stars zone on an odd-man rush, Eliot Grauer (Mukioteo, Wash.), who took a picture-perfect pass from Ben Carey (Centennial, Colo.) in the low slot, beat Marble with an in-close backhander to give the Wild a 1-0 lead just over a minute into the contest. It was Grauer's second goal of the tournament. The Wild went up by a pair just over five minutes later when Evan Schmidbauer (Surrey, BC) buried a rebound off of an Eric Johnson (Madison, Wis.) shot during a 4-on-4 situation.
Wenatchee went up 3-0 early in the second period when Zachary Wallace (Burbank, Calif.) tipped in a shot from the point by Shawn Pauly (Bellingham, Wash.) during a 5-on-3 power play. However, Alec Shields' power-play goal at the 13:52 mark cut Wenatchee's lead to 3-1.
The North Stars made it a 1-goal game near the 50th minute when Connor Schmidt scored his team's second power-play goal of the contest, but the Wild went on to score two unanswered goals down the stretch. Wallace scored his second goal of the game on assists from Zach Frye (Spokane, Wash.) and Matt Cope (Lakewood, Colo.) at the 14:26 mark, before Tyler Hope (Dallas, Texas) closed out scoring on an assist from Nathan Sliwinski (Castle Rock, Colo.) with less than a minute remaining in the contest.
Wild goaltender Brandon Jaeger (Champlin, Minn.), who improved to 2-0 at the tournament, made 24 saves on 26 shots. Marble stopped 38 of the Wild's 43 shots. Wenatchee was 1-for-10 on the power-play chances while Traverse City was 2-for-8.
Wenatchee will play its final game of the Showcase Tournament at 10:45 a.m. (PST) tomorrow against the Port Huron Fighting Falcons, one of the league's 2010-11 expansion teams.
North American Hockey League Stories from September 17, 2010
- Wild deals North Stars first loss - Wenatchee Wild
- Bobcats Fall in OT to Wichita Falls - Bismarck Bobcats
- Wild Tame TC, 5-2 - Traverse City North Stars
- Second Big Win for the IceRays - Corpus Christi IceRays
- Bulls Look For 2nd Win Tonight Versus Port Huron - Amarillo Bulls
- Bulls Fall to Fresno 4-3 Even Record to 1-1 - Amarillo Bulls
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