Photo Credit: Julie Pringle(Snap Photography)
November 24th, 2018
WENATCHEE, WAS. – The Wenatchee Wild sweep the American Thanksgiving two game set with the West Kelowna Warriors after picking up a 4-2 win Saturday night.
The Warriors came out hot out of the gate, and once again it was Chase Dubois scoring the first of the game making it 1-0 only 1:18 into the hockey game. Only 21 seconds later Cavin Tilsley fed Bennett Norlin in the Wild zone who was able to beat Wild goaltender Cal Sandquist and just like that it was 2-0 only 1:38 into the hockey game. Wild Head Coach Bliss Littler immediately signaled for a goalie change and replaced Sandquist with goaltender Austin Park. Park was pulled in Friday night’s hockey game after allowing 3 goals on 9 shots. The Wild would settle down the rest of the period with pressure in the West Kelowna end leading to Mat Gosiewski scoring his team leading 15th of the season making it 2-1. Shots on goal after the first, 19-9 in favor of the Wild.
The Warriors started the second period caught in their own zone for majority of the period, they had a powerplay opportunity they couldn’t cash in on and that gave the Wild a little more momentum leading to a Josh Arnold goal tying it up at two going into the third period. Head Coach and General Manager Geoff Grimwood had some words with the referee at the end of the period mainly because of the way his goaltender Connor Hopkins was treated in the crease. The Wild were physical with Hopkins numerous times in the second period but no goaltender interference calls were made.
The third period was once again loaded with controversy. After the Murphy Stratton scored the go ahead goal to complete the comeback for the Wild, the physical play continued in both ends of the ice. With under five minutes to go, Wild forward Nathan Iannone hit Lucas Bahn from behind leading to Cavin Tilsley dropping the gloves with Iannone. After a long discussion between officials, Tilsley was the only one penalized and ejected out of the game. This led to Warriors Geoff Grimwood to share his displeasure with the officials as well as Warriors vets Lucas Cullen and Chase Dubois. The officials would then eject Cullen, Dubois, and Grimwood out of the game. This led to a full 2 minute two man advantage with under 3 minutes to go in the hockey game. The Wild would score the 4th goal and complete the weekend sweep of the Warriors.
Shots on goal: 43-23 in favor of the Wenatchee Wild.
3 Stars
- WEN G Austin Park (19 Saves)
- WEN F Lucas Sowder (1A)
- WEN F Matt Gosiewski (2G)
Fortis Energy Player of the Game:
WEN F Josh Arnold (1G-1A)
The Warriors next game is Tuesday night versus the Langley Rivermen. Puck drop at 7:00pm from Royal LePage Place in West Kelowna. Catch Tuesday’’s game and every other home and away game this season on Mixlr and Hockey TV. Just head to the Warriors website and click on the “Listen Live” column to get directed to a radio feed of each game.
