Wilderness force Game Five

NSO-NEWS RELEASE

Wenatchee, WA. – The Minnesota Wilderness staved off elimination for the second game in a row, defeating the Wenatchee Wild 4-2 in game four of the Midwest Division semifinals Friday night in front of 3,540 at the Town Toyota Center.

Minnesota opened the scoring on a goal by Jaycob McCombs, assisted by Jesse Kessler. The goal, coming at 2:45, gave the Wilderness a 1-0 lead. Wenatchee would tie it with a power play goal by Matthew Nuttle (Marilla, New York), on a shot from the point. The assists went to Brendan Harris (Las Vegas, Nevada) and Mitch Demario (Franklin, Wisconsin) at 9:37, tying tgame 1-1.

Eric Brenk put the visitors back on top as Thomas Lindstrom set him up at 6:21 with Ivan Chukarov also assisting, for a 2-1 Minnesota lead. Then, at 13:14, Darian Romanko scored unassisted at 13:40, giving the Wilderness a 3-1 lead. The Wild struck late on the power play, as Jakob Ahlgren (Fergus Falls, Minnesota) scored on a tap-in at the left post. The assists went to Christian Salvato (La Verne, California) and River Rymsha (Huntington Woods, Michigan) at 19:33, cutting the deficit to 3-2 through 40 minutes.

The two teams battled hard throughout the final twenty minutes, with an empty net goal in the final minute sealing the deal for Minnesota. Chukarov scored from Romanko and Johno May at 19:32, giving the Wilderness the 4-2 win. “We need to make them work harder when they score” said Wenatchee Wild Head Coach Bliss Littler. “We had a couple of bad turnovers that they scored on. We had several good chances. Good hockey game, we had our chances, we have to make them work harder to score.”

Shots were even 26-26 on the night. Chase Perry (Andover, Minnesota) made 22 saves, Austin Priebe (Wausau, Wisconsin) 0 for the Wild, Kasimir Kaskisuo had 24 stops for the Wilderness. Wenatchee was 2-for-3 on the power play and 3-of-3 on the penalty kill.

The best-of-five series is now tied, 2-2.