Wild drop Game 3 to Monsters
Wenatchee Wild hockey
FRESNO, Calif. - The Wenatchee Wild have pulled off quite a few dramatic comebacks this season.
They'll need to summon their inner Comeback Kid in order to win their NAHL West Division semifinal playoff series after suffering a 2-1 overtime Game 3 loss to the Fresno Monsters Wednesday at the Gateway Ice Center in Fresno, Calif.
After 60 minutes of play Wednesday the Wild and Monsters mustered one goal apiece and headed into overtime. T
he Wild were penalized for slashing 6:41 into the extra session, which led to the game-winning goal. During their power play the Monsters' Trevor Husch entered the Wild zone down the left wing and slid a drop pass to Matt Salituro, who scored the game-winner from four feet inside the blue line. Mitchell Snyder also assisted on the game-winner.
The Wild dominated the first period of play Wednesday night, and were rewarded for their efforts when Evan Schmidbauer (Surrey, British Columbia) scored the first goal of the game at the 12:33 mark when he cleaned up a rebound. Tyler Bruneteau (Omaha, Neb.) picked up the assist on the sequence, which came during a very long possession in the offensive zone.
In spite of multiple other scoring chances the Wild were only able to take a 1-0 lead into the locker room at the first intermission.
The Monsters scored the only goal in the second period to force a 1-1 tie heading into the third period. During a 3-on-2, Dan Sherer scored on his backhand on helpers from Kyle Buffardi and Mark Bittner. The Wild had three power plays in the second period, but failed to score on all three chances.
The game went to overtime after a scoreless third period, setting the stage for Salituro's game-winner.
Wenatchee outshot the Monsters 38-28 in Game 3 and had more scoring chances. They went 0-for-3 on their power plays, all of which occurred in the second period. Fresno scored one power-play goal, Salituro's game-winner, on four tries.
Game 4 of the West Division semifinals between the Wild and Monsters is Thursday at Gateway Ice Center in Fresno, Calif. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m.