Wild salvage split against Rage

by Bob Richardson & Wenatchee Wild
| January 11, 2011 5:00 AM

DAWSON CREEK, British Columbia - Carl-Johan Sjogren (Sodertalje, Sweden) scored two goals, Brandon Jaeger (Champlin, Minn.) recorded his second shutout of the season, and the Wenatchee Wild defeated the Dawson Creek Rage Saturday night, 6-0. The win gave the Wild a split in its 2-game road series against the Rage.

Blake Saylor (Centennial, Colo.) scored the Wild's first goal of the game, which would turn out to be the game-winner, at 14:37 of the first period when he scored off a juicy rebound on Kyle Huson's (Parker, Colo.) shot from the blue line.

The Wild scored three second-period goals, two on power plays, to take a commanding 4-0 lead. D.J. Vandercook (Farmington Hills, Mich.) scored at 8:53 of the second period during a 5-on-3 power play from just inside the inner edge of the near faceoff circle. Chris Rumble (Chesapeake, Va.) and Michael Di Puma (Chicago, Ill.) assisted.

The Wild celebrated its third goal of the game less than a minute after Vandercook lit the lamp when Sjogren scored his first goal of the contest. Sjogren, who was positioned directly in front of the net, gathered a rebound with his right skate and scored on his forehand. Zach Frye (Spokane, Wash.) assisted. Eliot Grauer (Mukioteo, Wash.) made it 4-0 with 7:31 remaining in the second period when he scored on a backhander. Ben Carey (Centennial, Colo.) earned the lone assist.

Sjogren's second goal of the game gave the Wild a 5-0 lead 8:31 into the third period. Sjogren scored the goal on a blistering low-angle shot off a pass from Shawn Pauly (Bellingham, Wash.). Di Puma scored the Wild's sixth and final goal of the contest near the midpoint of the third period on a wrist shot from inside the far faceoff circle. Saylor picked up his second point of the game with the assist.

Sjogren scored two goals for the Wild while Saylor and Di Puma each recorded a goal and an assist.

Jaeger stopped all 18 shots he saw to earn his 15th win and second shutout of the season. Edward Dyson was tagged with the loss. He made 39 saves on 45 shots. Wenatchee scored three power play goals on seven changes while Dawson Creek went 0-for-6.

The Wild (21-12-2) returns to Wenatchee to host a 3-game series at the Town Toyota Center starting Thursday against the Kenai River Brown Bears. Thursday's game will begin at 6:35 p.m. while the other two games of the series are scheduled to begin at 7:05 p.m.