After 40 minutes Salmon Arm trailed 2-1 and it was a winnable game against Wenatchee. Five goals in the final 20 and the Wenatchee Wild left the Shaw Centre with a 7-1 win.
For the 19th time this season, Salmon Arm surrendered the first goal of the game. Wenatchee went down on one of the numerous odd man rushes they had during the game, and AJ Hodges scored to open the scoring. Ethan Langenegger came up with a big save two minutes later to keep it a one goal game. That allowed for a late goal scored by Olson Werenka to even the score at one with 3:21 on the clock. The puck was poked back to Werenka at the top of the left circle, and the defenceman wired a one time in for his third goal in the past three games.
In the second Salmon Arm nearly gave themselves the lead on a Hudson Schandor drop pass to Trevor Adams who came up with a good shot, but Austin Park was able to make the save. On the ensuing faceoff Wenatchee would breakout, and Salmon Arm got called for a slashing penalty. Playing up a man, Josh Arnold used a Silverbacks defender as a screen and his shot from the right faceoff circle beat Ethan Langenegger.
As the buzzer sounded in the second period, rookie Wild defenceman Dylan Herzog took a late shot that the Salmon Arm Silverbacks were very unhappy about. There was no unsportsmanlike penalty called, and that kept things five on five heading to the third.
Wenatchee would take advantage scoring just 48 seconds to give themselves a 3-1 lead. Things snowballed from there from Salmon Arm as the Wild scored four more times to finish with the 7-1 win. The Wild’s final goal was with five minutes left. Already leading by five, the visitors continued using their top power play unit and it was Brandon Koch scoring the final goal of the game.
After a doubleheader at home, Salmon Arm now heads on the road with games Friday in Vernon and Saturday in Merritt. All games can be heard on 91.5 EZ Rock with the pre-game show starting at 6:45.
