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WENATCHEE, Wash. – With no games on the schedule this coming weekend, the last two weeks have been the “calm before the storm” of sorts for all four teams under the Wenatchee Wild Hockey Academy umbrella. All four teams have seen action over the past two weeks, with two of the teams hosting a successful inaugural Verbero Cup in Wenatchee and a third earning a trip to the USA Hockey Pacific District tournament in San Jose, California next weekend.

The 18-and-under Wolves opened their February competition at the Canadian Sport School Hockey League’s showcase at the Edge School in Calgary, Alberta, going 1-2 on the weekend there. Logan Nagle scored both of his team’s goals in a 6-2 loss to St. George’s Prep to open the weekend, taking the Wolves into the first intermission tied 2-2 before St. George’s rattled off four unanswered goals to end the day. Wenatchee rebounded nicely in its Saturday outing, a 5-2 win over North Shore Academy in which Parker Platt scored a pair of goals and helped his team fire off four unanswered markers of its own. Zane Irion scored Wenatchee’s only goal in a 5-1 Sunday morning defeat against the Okanagan Hockey Academy to end the weekend.

The Wilderness 16-and-under group battled in three losses at the CSSHL’s WinSport showcase in Calgary, opening the weekend with a 6-4 loss to the RINK Hockey Academy. Gabriel Eckdahl scored two goals as the Wilderness erased an early 3-0 RINK lead. Offense was slow in coming in two more contests against stiff competition, with Brody Haas scoring the only Wenatchee goal Saturday in an 8-1 loss against the Shawnigan Lake School. The weekend ended Sunday morning, following a 6-0 win for the Coeur d’Alene Hockey Academy against the Wilderness.

“Especially for our 16U players to play at that level, I think it’s a wake-up call when you’re playing some very good programs on a regular basis,” said Wenatchee Wild Hockey Academy director Troy Mick. “A lot of the teams that they’re playing have Western Hockey League-drafted players, or affiliate players in the BCHL, so that’s what we want. We know pretty much every game, we have to be our best to be in those games. The 16s have learned a lot this year – the record isn’t where we want it as far as wins and losses, but I’ve seen a lot of development with our players, and they’re realizing that they thought they were pretty good where they came from, but when you go against the Western Canadian boys, you’ve got some work to put in.”

The Wolverines 14-and-under team opened its February by traveling to Seattle for the Pacific Northwest Amateur Hockey Association tournament and landing a district tournament slot by way of an overtime loss in the tournament finals. Wenatchee opened the tournament with a 4-0 shutout win over the Seattle Northstars behind three power play goals, and held off Sno-King for a 2-1 round-robin victory. Akira Ota scored the eventual game-winner early in the third period. Wenatchee battled to a 2-1 shootout loss to the Northstars in their second round-robin get-together before closing round-robin play with a 5-0 loss to Sno-King. Liam Rogers made 50 saves in the final, before Sno-King punched its ticket to the district tourney behind a 2-1 overtime win in the last game of the tournament.

This past weekend, both the Wenatchee 16U and 18U teams found themselves busy this past weekend at the Verbero Cup tournament at Town Toyota Center, with 26 games played between a dozen teams over the three-day span. The 18U Wolves battled to a 2-0 loss against the Thompson Blazers on Friday to open the tournament, before dropping a 5-4 decision in a shootout against RINK Academy on Friday afternoon. Despite a 3-1 loss to the Okanagan Hockey Academy on Saturday morning, the weekend ended nicely for the Wolves with a 5-0 consolation victory over Coeur d’Alene Hockey Academy.

The 16U Wilderness took the second seed out of round-robin play, defeating the Thompson Blazers 4-1 and the Northwest Bronks 2-1. The South Island Royals held off their hosts for a 2-1 overtime win Saturday evening in the round-robin finale, and Wenatchee would bow out of the tournament with a semifinal loss to RINK Academy.

“I’d like to give a shout-out to our parents, our billet families and our volunteers that helped make it a success,” said Mick. “I’ve seen a lot of emails and text messages to say how well it was run, and that was our first one. Next year, it’ll be bigger and better, and we’re really happy in how it ended.”

With those teams competing on home ice, the 12U team made its way north to the Coca-Cola Classic in Vernon, British Columbia and picking up a pair of wins along the way itself. Wenatchee went 2-1 in round-robin play, falling 8-3 against the Leduc Roughnecks before holding off the Vernon Watkins Motors Mustangs 6-4 behind four goals from Alexander Haglund and two more from Brayden Lee. Six different Wild players scored goals in a 6-3 win against the North Delta Sun Devils to wrap up round-robin action. Despite falling behind 2-0 early in the semifinals against the Cranbrook Bucks, Wenatchee wiped away the lead before dropping a 3-2 decision in overtime, and Leduc earned a 10-4 win in the third-place game to close out the weekend. Wenatchee’s Aaron Azevedo was awarded the Ernie Kowal Memorial Trophy as the tournament’s top coach.

The weekend is a quiet one ahead of a three-team visit to San Jose next week, as the Wenatchee 14U, 16U and 18U teams all hit the ice at the USA Hockey Pacific District Tournament at Sharks Ice. It’ll be an early start for all three teams, with the 14U Wolverines and 16U Wilderness set to hit the ice Thursday morning. The 18U Wolves will be the last of the three teams to make its debut at the tournament, with a 12:30 p.m. puck drop next Thursday.