Hockey Fights Cancer Night: Wild stumble in fierce battle against Silvertips

WENATCHEE – Friday’s Western Hockey League game between the Wenatchee Wild and Everett Silvertips turned on a pair of short stretches in the second and third periods, but those small periods of time made a big difference in the outcome.

Everett scored two goals in a 23-second span of the second period and notched five more in a seven-minute spell in the third as the Wild took a 7-1 loss, dropping to 28-22-4-0 on the season. The Silvertips climbed to 36-18-1-2 as Wenatchee celebrated its Hockey Fights Cancer night in front of 4,269 fans, the second sellout crowd of the year at Town Toyota Center.

The Wild more than held their own over the first 20 minutes of the game despite the Silvertips firing off 11 of the game’s first 13 shots, taking a scoreless tie into the locker room. At 6:10 of the second period, though, a scramble in front of the Wild net led to an Everett penalty shot, which Dominik Rymon deposited over the goal line for a 1-0 lead. With a power play still in effect for the Silvertips, Austin Roest wristed a shot into the net from the left half at 6:33, giving the visitors a 2-0 advantage.

Wenatchee put itself right into the mix again with 4:22 left in the period, when Evan Friesen sent a pass into the right-wing faceoff circle for Karter Prosofsky, who blasted a one-timer past Tyler Palmer to cut the lead to 2-1.

The Silvertips looked to set the pace to start the third, and put the game out of reach with five straight goals in the final stanza. Roest scored two to complete the hat trick, scoring off a pass from Teague Patton at 1:39 of the third and scoring his final goal with a tip-in off a Niko Tsakumis shot at 6:59. Also contributing in the third period were Lukas Kaplan with a one-timer from Cade Zaplitny at 4:33, Ben Hemmerling’s goal on a rebound at 6:14, and Jesse Heslop’s redirect on Eric Jamieson’s goal at the 8:23 mark.

“That’s a tough one. Obviously, Everett’s a good team, and we knew that going in,” said assistant coach Andrew Sarauer. “They push the pace really well, and there’s not a lot of time out there. We just had a big win in Seattle, and we were looking forward to a good Friday night and a special night in front of our fans. We hung on until the third period – if you go into the third period in a 2-1 game, it’s anybody’s game, but they got two right away in the third period and it killed us.”

Roest registered his third hat trick of the season, while Rymon and Hemmerling posted a goal and an assist apiece. Friesen and Graham Sward both picked up assists on Prosofsky’s goal, with Friesen’s assist giving him a 15th consecutive game with at least one point to tie Sward’s season-best for Wenatchee. Brendan Gee took the loss, making 36 saves, while Palmer made 11 saves to earn his 23rd win of the year. The Wild killed off two of Everett’s three power plays in Friday’s game, but came up empty on their three power play chances.