Wild Sweep Monsters in Final Regular-Season Series
March 20, 2011 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Wenatchee Wild News Release
WENATCHEE, Wash. - The Wenatchee Wild swept its 2-game series against the Fresno Monsters with a 6-2 victory Saturday night at the Town Toyota Center. The win allowed the Wild to clinch the West Division's No. 2 seed in the NAHL's Robertson Cup Playoffs.
The Wild, winners of five of its last six games, is guaranteed home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs as the division's No. 2 seed. Wenatchee concluded the 2010-11 regular season with a record of 34-21-3 and 71 standings points.
Wenatchee held a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes of play Saturday. The Wild drew first blood when Ben Carey (Centennial, Colo) scored on a rebound from the slot 1:45 into the contest off of Cody von Rueden's shot. Tyler Hope (McKinney, Texas) earned the second assist. The game was tied up 27 seconds later when Johan Bjorklund took a feed from Jordan Lovick and one-timed it past Wild netminder Greg Lewis (Pittsburgh, Pa.).
Matt Cope (Lakewood, Colo.) put the Wild back on top at the 13:02 mark when he tapped in a pass on the doorstep from Hope. Bradley Shumway (Lafayette, Colo.) also assisted. Lewis assured that the Wild maintained its 2-1 lead at the first intermission when he stoned D.J. Carnley on a breakaway late in the first frame.
Wenatchee notched two goals in the first 2:27 of the second frame to open up a commanding 4-1 lead. Shawn Pauly (Bellingham, Wash.) scored the first of the Wild's second-period goals when he one-timed a Michael Di Puma (Chicago, Ill.) pass into the cage from the slot to finish off an odd-man rush. Mario Puskarich (Fort Walton Beach, Fla.) gave the Wild a 3-goal lead 1:47 later when he lofted a wrister from the bottom of the far circle off of D.J. Vandercook's (Farmington Hills, Mich.) pass from behind the cage.
Bjorklund scored his second goal of the game on a third-period breakaway to cut the lead down to 4-2, but the Wild answered with a breakaway goal of its own by Pauly off of a long pass from Jacob Barber (Dardenne Prairie, Mo.). Hunter Brown (Huntsville, Ala.) picked up the secondary assist. Carey closed out scoring at 5:03 of the third. Gage Christianson (Anchorage, Alaska) and Puskarich assisted.
Lewis made 17 saves on 19 shots to earn his second win with the Wild. Luis Puig, who was tagged with the loss, and Tom Conlin combined for 16 saves on 22 shots for the Monsters. Neither team scored a power-play goal. Wenatchee went 0-for-3 on the man-advantage while Fresno was 0-for-2.
Pauly and Carey each scored two goals, Puskarich notched a goal and an assist and Hope recorded two assists for the Wild. Bjorklund scored both of the Monsters' markers.
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