Claimed: Wild Reverse Fortunes

[MD9 139]

Wild Reverse Fortunes

Yukon's goal-tending help up even against a wealth of chances by Bo Boeser.

 

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

 

It was a hard fought battle in Saskatoon tonight. After losing three straight games for the first time since their mid-season acquisitions of Daring Do, Jake Scheel, Les Clarke and Ryan Hamilton helped solidify the team’s depth, the Saskatoon Wild overcame the Yukon Rush in a tightly contested, shoot-out victory. It was a solid team effort on the part of the Wild that helped to overcome an exceptional performance by some of Yukon’s top players: namely, Julien Gallant, Apollo Aho and Marty McDouglas. With seven different Saskatoon players registering a point, and none registering more than two, no individual player stands out as having carried the team to victory. Rather, the club continues to show its newfound ability to reply on hard work throughout the ranks.

 

In many ways, it was the kind of game that’s becoming familiar for fans of the Wild this year. Bo Boeser was a constant threat, registering eleven shots on net in the game, with one goal, while Daring Do continued his eleven game point streak by registering his own goal. Carlo Capitulo, another of the Wild’s more dangerous scorers, also lit the lamp once. The trio make up the team’s most frequent scorers, with Boeser having an extremely impressive tally at 44, Capitulo following at 30, and Do having 16 despite only having played 33 games (compared to Capitulo and Boeser’s 50). As always, Ryan Hamilton and Trazan Apansson recorded massive ice-time, clocking in well over 30 minutes to provide the team with a solid anchor from which to lead.

 

Appropriately, it was Les Clarke, one of Saskatoon’s late additions, that scored the shootout winner to give the team the win, after both goaltenders proved tough to beat one on one. After the goal was scored, you could almost see the relief from the Saskatoon bench, as the win helped them stop a potential free-fall in the standings. Although Las Vegas has created a lead that is almost certainly insurmountable at this point, the Wild are fighting hard to claim the number two spot in the league -- and a string of losses, however hard fought they were, could put some serious strain on those efforts. 

 

Jake Scheel was questioned about the win after the game. “It was a hard fought victory,” he told reporters. “We haven’t been capitalizing on our chances the way we usually do, so it was good to get a big two points like this to get our stride back. Obviously, this team has a lot of guys who can put the puck in the net. It hasn’t been coming, but with a win like this, I think it gives us some confidence back. We’re going to take what we’ve learned from our recent losses and move forward. Learn from it, you know?”

 

Although the team may have earned the win, that isn’t to say there aren’t still things that will be highlighted in practice. The Wild struggled noticeably on the powerplay, throwing away all four attempts despite the firepower their offence boasts. A lack of discipline may also find its way into the next morning practice, with a few reckless penalties taken in the third period when the game was still extremely close. Scheel with a hooking minor, Hamilton with unsportsmanlike conduct, and Do with another hooking minor with four minutes left in the game. In any event, the positives outweigh the negatives for the young team.