News

All four of the Wenatchee Wild Development Team programs have seen time on the ice over the last two weeks, with each group heading on the road to continue its season heading into the month of February.

The Wenatchee Wolves 18-and-under program has spent time on the ice each of the last two weeks, and wrapped up a trip to the USA Hockey Pacific District tournament in San Jose, California in late February with a 2-0 win on January 19 against the Northwest Stars in Seattle. The teams went to the third period in a scoreless tie before Parker Platt and Ryan Sikorski posted back-to-back goals in the third to push the game out of reach.

“It wasn’t easy. We took a penalty with about 2:06 to go in the game, and of course they’re going to pull the goalie,” said Wenatchee Wild Development Team hockey director Troy Mick. “It was a big kill – if they’d have scored early it would have made a difference, them being down only one. Ethan Bockus blocked about four shots in a row, and then Weston English came across, dove his face into the puck and cut his ear. That just showed the resilience of our guys – they’ve been doing that all year. Hats off to the Northwest Stars – it was a great game.”

The Wild 12-and-under team also hit the road, going 2-2 at the Battle in the Valley tournament in Kelowna, British Columbia. While they headed to Canada for the weekend, Mick and other coaches from around the state spent the weekend at Town Toyota Center observing up-and-coming talent from across Washington in a Pacific Northwest Amateur Hockey Association tryout.

“I was one of the evaluators over the weekend, and so were [16U and 18U co-coach] Jordan McTaggart and [12U and 14U co-coach] Tysen Azevedo,” said Mick. “It was good to go through it, see how they run it, and compare some of our players to some of the best players in Washington state. All in all, it was a win-win.”

The most recent weekend saw three of the four programs hit the ice for the United States Hockey League’s Frosty Cup tournament in Dallas, Texas. The tournament was held in conjunction with a pair of USHL regular-season games between the Tri-City Storm and Fargo Force. The 18U and 14U Wolves and Wolverines reached the semifinals in their respective age divisions, while the 16U Wilderness battled in four losses.

All three 18U victories came in one-goal games, with the L.A. Jr. Kings battling back from a 3-0 deficit to force overtime in the opening game on Friday before Sikorski scored to end the game with 2:35 remaining in overtime. The Phoenix Jr. Coyotes out-shot Wenatchee in Saturday afternoon’s get-together 36-15, but Logan Nagle’s power play goal with 3:43 remaining sent the Wolves to another overtime victory. Saturday night’s matchup against the Lincoln Stars 18U team went all the way to a shootout, with the Wolves battling back from a 2-0 deficit in the third before Nagle notched the only goal of the shootout to claim another victory. The eventual tournament champion Jersey Hitmen posted four second-period goals in Sunday’s semifinal on the way to a 7-2 victory.

The Wilderness 16U team took the lead into the second period of its opener on Friday before the Jr. Coyotes’ offense caught fire for a 7-2 victory. Saturday was not quite as kind, however, seeing the Jersey Hitmen take a 7-0 victory in a noon matchup before the Madison Capitols 16U team notched a 4-0 win to close out the evening. The Anaheim Ice Dogs took the lead three separate times in Sunday’s consolation matchup before holding off the Wilderness for the 3-2 victory to close out the weekend.

“The last two games, they worked real hard and battled real hard,” said Mick. “When you play good teams like that, you realize how far you’ve got to go and what you’ve got to work on, and that’s evident for us this week.”

The 14U Wolverines scored a pair of one-goal victories to open their run at the tournament before running into a pair of hot teams to close out the weekend. Landon Nagle and Caden Stoltz both potted shootout goals in a 3-2 win over the Jr. Coyotes in the opener Friday afternoon, before Stoltz and Akira Ota struck for a 4-3 shootout win Saturday against the Anaheim Jr. Ducks. Both 14U losses at the tournament came against teams that would match up in the final round – Stoltz scored his team’s only goal in an 8-1 defeat against the Anaheim Ice Dogs, while the Dallas Stars Elite program posted a 9-0 win in the semis on its way to a Frosty Cup tournament championship.

The 18U and 16U programs will celebrate the program’s admission into the Canadian Sport School Hockey League by heading back north of the border for a pair of CSSHL showcase events in Calgary, Alberta this weekend. The 18U squad will compete at the Edge School, while the 16U team will play at the International Hockey Academy, with the WinSport Arenas at Olympic Park set to host the showcase.