News

(PHOTO CREDIT: April Stoltz)

Wolverines at NWS  (Jan 29-30, 2022)

Shortly into the new year Wenatchee faced a treacherous winter storm, leading to the Wolverines canceling their first weekend back which had slated two games against the Northwest Stars. After rescheduling these for the end of January, the team was eager to get back to playing with the last competition prior to the holiday break. With a ton of excitement and hunger, the Wolverines came ready to play by taking an early lead and never looked back. Controlling nearly the whole game in possession and chances, the team looked great in a 3-0 shutout win with a great performance in the defensive zone by the players and goaltender, Crew Petty, to keep the Stars off the board in a flurry of chances playing five on six.

Game two the next morning was a back-and-forth game with the Stars playing with more of an edge following the previous night’s dominance by the Wolverines. A much faster and more physical matchup while the game opened up with many more scoring chances, both goaltenders held the game locked at only one goal aside after three periods of play. In overtime the Wolverines had a fair share of chances controlling the 3v3 that weren’t capitalized on, including two breakaways. With less than 30 seconds remaining, the Stars seized an opportunity on a broken play in which they won the game on an odd man rush with a top shelf goal. Overall, a great weekend of play for the Wolverines coming out of the weekend with 1-0-0-1 record after not playing in over a month.

Wolverines host SnoKing (Feb 4–5, 2022)

As the year is quickly winding down, the State Championship held at home by the Wolverines was not exactly the expected follow up from a great weekend prior. A driven SnoKing team had the 2021 State Championship disappointment bottled in with something to prove, and that was on display without an answer by the Wolverines. Only a few shifts into the opening game, SnoKing scored on a point shot which set the tone of confidence which continued to pour over throughout the day. After a time out by the Wolverines down by three, SnoKing was able to net another the following shift. Less than a minute later there was a glimpse of fight when the Wolverines won a battle in SnoKing’s crease to score their one and only goal. Quickly having to put the 6-1 thumping behind, it was time to refocus in a must win Saturday evening matchup.

                Right out of the gates the Wolverines were back to the identity they were growing fond of the previous weekend against the Stars. Scoring two goals in the first period while limiting SnoKing’s powerful offense was exactly what was needed if there was going to be a game 3. After the second goal, the answer for SnoKing was to switch goalies which gave their team the reset they were looking for. All it took was a few mistakes in allowing a powerful offense to capitalize on their chances and the game swayed into SnoKing’s favor having 3-2 lead heading into the second period intermission. The Wolverines had only one period to claw back, although a tough task at hand as their opposition had found their confidence from earlier in the day. With two explosive breakaways early in the third, a deficit of 5-2 with limited time remaining was all that was needed for SnoKing to put the game out of reach going on to win State, defeating Wenatchee 8-2.   

A disappointed team knowing it wasn’t their best performance of the year when we were needing it most, will hopefully fuel the fire going looking down the homestretch of the season. The Wolverines responded with a great practice Sunday rounding out the weekend with one more practice weekend of preparation before the team heads to Arizona for their last tournament before the Pacific District tournament the following weekend in Irvine, CA. With both Tier I teams from Washington having the opportunity to advance to the regional tournament, there is a great chance the Wolverines will get a shot at redemption against SnoKing when it matters the most.