Wild Routs Monsters, 6-2
March 18, 2011 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Wenatchee Wild News Release
WENATCHEE, Wash. - The Wenatchee Wild exploded for four second-period goals Friday en route to a 6-2 victory over the Fresno Monsters at the Town Toyota Center. The Wild, winners of four of its last five games, inched closer to securing the No. 2 seed in the West Division with the victory.
Wenatchee lit the first lamp of the game thanks to a friendly post. Blake Saylor (Centennial, Colo.) scored his sixth goal of the season from the top of the near circle on a shot that hit the post, then hit the back of Fresno netminder Tom Conlin and went over the goal line. Evan Schmidbauer (Surrey, BC) and Michael Di Puma (Chicago, Ill.) assisted.
Fresno knotted the game, 1-1, 3:36 into the second frame on Jordan Lovick's goal that was assisted by Willie Hess and Garrett Orhn. The rest of the second period belonged to the Wild, who scored four straight goals in less than four minutes. Carl-Johan Sjogren (Tumba, Sweden) scored the first of those four goals at the 7:39 mark to reclaim the lead for Wenatchee, 2-1. During a power play, Sjogren scored on a wrister from the top of the far circle. Mario Puskarich (Fort Walton Beach, Fla.) and D.J. Vandercook (Farmington Hills, Mich.) assisted.
Di Puma made it 3-1 at 9:06 of the second stanza when he knocked in a rebound off of Kyle Huson's (Parker, Colo.) slapper from the near point. Jacob Barber (Dardenne Prairie, Mo.) also assisted. Ben Carey (Centennial, Colo.) made it a 3-goal lead 49 seconds later on a wrist shot from the near wing that beat Conlin 5-hole. Huson and Vandercook earned the helpers.
Defenseman Hunter Brown (Huntsville, Ala.) scored the Wild's fourth and final goal of the second period on a slapper from the near point during a man-advantage. Assisted by Vandercook and Max McHugh (Edgewood, Wash.), it was Brown's first goal in a Wild jersey.
Barber recorded his team-leading 34th goal of the season 25 seconds into the third period on a wicked wrist shot that beat Conlin glove side. Huson and Patrick Kinkopf (Lake Forest Park, Wash.) picked up the assists. The Monsters closed out scoring at the 5:51 mark on D.J. Carnley's power-play marker. Riley Borer and TJ Powers assisted.
Wild goalie Brandon Jaeger (Champlin, Minn.) made 10 saves on 12 shots to earn his fifth straight win. Conlin stopped 19 of 24 shots in the loss while Luis Puig made three saves on four shots.
Vandercook and Huson each recorded three assists. Di Puma and Barber each scored a goal and an assist. Wenatchee scored two power-play goals on six chances while Fresno went 1-for-4 on the man-advantage.
The Wild (33-21-3) will try to sweep the Monsters on Saturday. Faceoff is set for 7:05 p.m.
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