The Smoke Eaters put 42 shots on the Wenatchee net, 32 of which came in the 2nd & 3rd periods, but the Wild’s netminder Andy Vlaha would stop 40 of those shots as the Wild pick up their fifth straight win in a tightly contested game on Wednesday night in Trail.
The Smoke Eaters didn’t have a particularly strong start to the game on Wednesday, being out shout 12-1 in the first 13 minutes of the first. However their slow start was not the reason they lost this game. Of course the argument can always be made that if you have a better start, maybe you get a chance and a go ahead goal. That being said the way Vlaha was playing in the Wenatchee net he was going to tough to beat regardless as he came away with five or more highlight reel saves to keep the Smoke Eaters to just two. Wenatchee opened the scoring and it was Parker Murray who scored on what was the third consecutive shot in tight that Teagan Kendrick faced, as Murray found the rebound at the top of the crease and kept his shot low as he slammed the puck through Kendrick to give Wenatchee the 1-0 lead. The Smoke Eaters would find their legs in the back half of the period as Adam Marshall sent a stretch pass up the right side to Try Fechko, who didn’t have much of a lead on the defenceman on the right side but gave himself enough space to get a shot off and tie this game at 1.
Jumping ahead to the second period and a 1-1 tie game. The Smoke Eaters will also be looking at their powerplay as a missed opportunity as they look back on this game. The Smoke Eaters were awarded a string of powerplays to start the second including a double minor for kneeing. While they created chances and tested Vlaha a total of 20 times in the middle frame the Smoke Eaters came away empty handed. To make matters worse, of the nine shots the Smoke Eaters gave up, two ended up in their net as Gabe Dombrowski scored the initial go ahead goal as he spun in the left circle and put the puck perfectly over the short side shoulder of Kendrick, off the bar and in, a shot you’d be hard presssed to find any goaltender capable of stopping. Ean Somoza score the insurance goal and the eventual game winner with a powerplay goal a few minutes later as his shot from the right circle hit both posts, hit Kendrick in the back and went in to give the Wild a 3-1 lead after two periods.
Needing to mount a third period comeback the Smoke Eaters effort certainly wasn’t lacking as they added another 12 shots, created some of their best opportunities of the night, but could only find one more past Vlaha. That goal came late in the game with under four minutes to go as Ethan Warrener pinched down the left side put a shot towards the net that tipped wide, hit the back wall and bounce to the right side of the net for Brady Hunter who had a lot to work to do to get the shot off an beat Vlaha for his fourth of the year.
Despite a late goalmouth scramble the smoke Eaters weren’t able to find a third as the Wild hold on for a 3-2 win over the Smoke Eaters. These two teams will go at it again on Friday night down in Wenatchee for game 2 of 4 on this mini mid season series between the Smoke Eaters and the Wild.
