Seitz, Friesen debut in scoring column as Wild win in overtime Sunday

WENATCHEE  – The Wenatchee Wild needed to dig deep in closing out their weekend with Sunday’s Western Hockey League contest against the Vancouver Giants.

Sunday’s game was the third in three nights for the Wild, arriving home from a road trip to Kamloops, British Columbia in the wee hours of Sunday morning and taking on a Vancouver Giants team that had defeated the Prince Albert Raiders 10-1 the night before. Wenatchee dug extra deep for a 3-2 win over Vancouver at Town Toyota Center, powering through a brief overtime session and closing the weekend on a high note thanks in part to the first goals of the season from veteran forwards Dawson Seitz and Evan Friesen.

“You could see it on their faces the last couple of days,” said Wild assistant coach Dan Johnston. “They got the monkeys off their back. It’s nice to see them get some confidence and see the puck go in the net, and hopefully they can build off of it. The game of hockey is very honest, and checking our details and making sure that we’re hard to play against, these guys got what they deserved tonight.”

Vancouver started quickly, with Cameron Schmidt breaking free on a grab-and-go from the Giants’ blue line and scoring just 92 seconds into the game. The Wild answered back when Seitz was pulled down on a break toward the Vancouver net with 6:39 left in the period – with a delayed penalty call coming, Seitz maintained possession of the puck long enough to feed it left to Hayden Moore, who finished with a wrist shot to tie the game.

Wenatchee posted six of the first seven shots in the contest and eight of the final 10 in the second period, but both teams came up empty at the offensive end until the 9:05 mark of the third period. With just seconds remaining on a Vancouver power play, Friesen peeled away down the right wing and pushed home a forehand chance to give the Wild their only lead of regulation. Adam Titlbach shoveled a backhand chance past Zach Zahara with 5:23 to go in regulation, tying the game at 2-2.

The Wild picked up the only shot on goal in the third period, and it was all they needed – with Seitz coming off the bench on a change, Luka Shcherbyna fed a pass to Seitz at the Vancouver blue line, and Seitz skated the puck in before pitching a forehand wrister to the top half of the net with 3:25 left on the overtime clock.

Seitz finished the night with a goal and an assist, the only multi-point game of the night for either team. Zahara earned his first win in a Wild uniform behind 22 saves, while Burke Hood made 32 saves in the overtime loss for the Giants. The penalty-killing units combined to go 5-for-5 in the game, including three successes for Wenatchee, who entered the day as the league’s top penalty-killing unit. Four of Wenatchee’s five weekends so far in 2024-25 have finished with a home game, and the Wild have earned at least one standings point in all four of those outings.

The Wild make a brief visit to Everett on Wednesday before returning home Friday for Howl-O-Ween against the Tri-City Americans. Wednesday’s puck drop at Angel of the Winds Arena is scheduled for 7:05 p.m., with live coverage on Newsradio 560 KPQ and WHL Live. Tickets for all regular-season home games are on sale now by phone at 509-888-7825, or by visiting the team office at Town Toyota Center. Updated news and information on Wild hockey are always available through the team’s website and on the team’s social media platforms on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.