The Wenatchee Wild were without their two big guns on Thursday night, but they still had enough arsenal to knock off the visiting Victoria Royals.
Playing without their two top scorers in Conor Geekie and Matthew Savoie, who are both playing for Canada at the world junior hockey championship in Sweden, the Wild struck twice in the third period to edge the Royals 3-2 in front of 3,575 fans at the Town Toyota Center.
The Royals, who made the four-hour trek south from Langley on Thursday, were slow out of the gate in Wenatchee but managed to come out of the first period with a 1-0 lead despite being outshot 12-3 in the period. Alex Edwards struck with just 11 seconds remaining in the opening period to give Victoria the lead. After Miles Cooper got the home team even three minutes into the second period, it was Edwards again, this time banging home a rebound midway through the period to restore the Royals lead.
At the five minute mark of the third period, Luka Shcherbyna beat Jayden Kraus from the slot to get the Wild even again, and then game first-star Briley Wood added to his two assists with a goal of his own midway through the final period to allow the Wenatchee (22-12-3-0) to bounce back from a loss in Spokane the night before.
Rookie Krause finished with 32 saves for the Royals, while Daniel Hauser made 28 saves to get the win for the Wild.
The Royals (21-13-0-2) now return home for a pair of games against teams from Alberta. Victoria hosts the Edmonton Oil Kings on Saturday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, and then welcome the Calgary Hitmen for an afternoon game on New Year’s Day.
