Wild night for Wenatchee forces fifth game

PALMER — Wenatchee went wild and now the Alaska Avalanche are headed to a fifth game.

The Wenatchee Wild scored seven unanswered goals and used a 7-1 victory Friday night at the MTA Events Center in Palmer to force a decisive Game 5 of the North American Hockey League best-of-5 first-round playoff series.

“Hand it to Wenatchee. They put together a good game plan for the road, and they executed,” Alaska assistant coach Josh Petrich said after the loss.

Game 5 is slated for Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. at the MTA Events Center in Palmer.

Alaska had taken a 2-1 series lead with back-to-back overtime wins in Wenatchee, Wash., last week. Alaska scored a 2-1 overtime win last Friday and bested the Wild 3-2 in a double-overtime marathon last Saturday.

With the series back in the Valley, Alaska was within a victory of winning a playoff series for the first time in franchise history. But Wenatchee used a third-period outburst to even the series at 2.

“Playoff hockey comes down to goaltending, special teams and a few bounces,” Petrich said.

Last week, during their two wins, the Avs had the edge in goaltending, played well on special teams and got a couple of bounces. Friday night, Wenatchee had the superior goaltending and dominated the special teams.

The Wild also got plenty of bounces.

Wenatchee enjoyed ample time on the power play, and cashed in. The Wild were 6 of 13 with the advantage in the win, and all five Wenatchee third-period goals came on the power play. The Wild scored three times in the third while skating with the 5 on 3 advantage.

Alaska spent the bulk of the third period skating shorthanded, often two men down. The Avs were whistled for a pair of five-minute majors in the period, and a number of minors. Alaska finished with 64 penalty minutes in the game, compared to Wenatchee’s 26.

Some moments in the third period were simply, odd.

Veteran forward Wehebe Darge was tagged for 17 minutes worth of penalties 3:41 into the third period. Darge was left in a pile with Wenatchee’s Blake Saylor, who received a two-minute minor for roughing. A puzzled Petrich said Darge is not that type of player. It marked the first time in 110 career games with the Avalanche that Darge received a five-minute fighting major.

Another Avalanche forward, Codey Hanson, was given a five-minute head-butting major later in the period.

Darge gave the Avs the 1-0 lead midway through the second period. Hansen put a shot on goal and Darge followed, cutting between the circles before firing a shot into the upper shelf of the Wenatchee net. The Wild were able to tie the score two minutes later with their first power-play goal of the game.

Petrich said there were two good periods of hockey.

“It was back and forth, plenty of energy,” Petrich said.

Wenatchee held a slim 21-20 advantage in shots during the first two periods, but were able to capitalize with the extra time with the advantage in the third.

The winner of Game 5 will move on to play Fairbanks, which swept Kenai River in the first round.

Wenatchee 7, Alaska 1

Game 4, first-round playoffs

Friday, MTA Events Center

First period — no scoring.

Second period — 1. Alaska- Darge (Hansen) 11:01; 2. Wenatchee- Roubos (Cope, Carey) pp 13:55: 3. Wenatchee- McHugh (Pauly, Abood) 18:55.

Third period — 4. Wenatchee- Rostenkowski (Cope, Knudson) pp 8:39; 5. Wenatchee- Carey (Roubos, Cope) 9:37; 6. Wenatchee- Huson (Barber, Knudson) pp 9:57; 7. Wenatchee- Roubos (Knudson, Abood) pp 14:29; 8. Wenatchee- Cope (Saylor) pp 19:48.

Shots on goal: Wenatchee 9-12-11—32, Alaska 10-10-3—23, Power plays: Wenatchee 6 for 13, Alaska 0 for 4.