Anthony Yamnitsky stopped everything including the kitchen sink on Tuesday as the Wenatchee Wild gutted out a 2-1 victory over the Prince George Spruce Kings at the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
The 19-year old from North Royalton, Ohio backstopped the visitors to a 31 save performance giving the Wild a 3-0 series lead in their first round playoff matchup against Prince George.
Spruce Kings fall in a tight 2-1 game to the @WenatcheeWild1. Spruce Kings now down 3-0 in the series. pic.twitter.com/w7DjBFWJsn
— Spruce Kings (@SpruceKings) March 8, 2017
A physical tone was set by the Spruce Kings who constantly made life uncomfortable for Wenatchee’s best players including Charlie Combs, Brendan Harris, and Matthew Baker just to name a few.
Both teams headed to the dressing room scoreless after the opening period as Prince George outshot the Wild 10-8.
In the second, the Wild drew first blood for the third consecutive game as AJ Vanderbeck beat Tavin Grant late in the middle frame giving Wenatchee a 1-0 lead after 40 minutes.
The tide would turn in the third period as Yamnitsky robbed Spruce Kings captain Brett Mennear on a shorthanded breakaway keeping the game at 1-0.
A little later on, Prince George defenceman Tyler Anderson levelled Combs from inside the Wenatchee blue line and was subsequently given a head contact penalty plus a 10-minute misconduct.
After an arrant clearing attempt shorthanded the Wild finally doubled the advantage courtesy of Jimmy O’Brien who deflected a point shot from Slava Demin.
Despite a flurry of chances, the Spruce Kings were unable to solve Yamnitsky until late in third when Kyle Johnson banged home a rebound with under a minute remaining.
JOHNSON SCORES!!!! In his return @19kylejohnson scores to get PG within one with 46 seconds left
— Spruce Kings (@SpruceKings) March 8, 2017
MYPGNOW caught up with Mennear at the end of the game and says he was proud of the effort despite the loss.
“The boys gave it their all tonight (Tuesday), just a few scoring chances we want to have back but we gave it a really good shot, Tavin played great for us and I thought we had a good chance to win.”
The physical approach by the Spruce Kings against the diminutive Wild forwards was a success despite the defeat.
“I think as the playoffs get deeper and deeper they are going to wear down if you keep on them so I think that was a big focus for us for sure,” says Mennear.
Spruce Kings Head Coach Chad Van Diemen says a lack of execution offensively was the team’s demise.
“We had enough really good scoring opportunities to get a better result but we were unable to finish on a lot of those chances. We need a similar effort going into game 4 but we need to be ready for our scoring chances, we feel like we’re going to get them and have had a lot in this series and their goaltender has played really well. We have not been good enough around the net. ”
Wenatchee defenceman Tyler Rockwell says it was nice to see Yamnitsky continue his stellar playoff performance on the road.
“Yammer played great and he’s been that way all season and playoffs, we knew it was going to be a close game and they were going to come out hard but we knew if we played our game we’d get the win.”
The Wild scored a BCHL high 294 goals during the regular season and are used to beating the opposition into submission by scoring at will.
That wasn’t the case on Tuesday and Rockwell says it was beneficial to win a different style of game.
“It’s definitely a good experience for all the guys, every time you win a close game your team is going to get better and I think it was really good for Yammer to get a lot of pressure on him in this series.”
Yamnitsky is 3-0 in the series racking up a 1.00 GAA and a .957 Save Percentage.
Game 4 is slated for Wednesday at 7 pm from the RMCA.
BCHL PLAYOFF SCOREBOARD:
Trail Smoke Eaters 4, Salmon Arm Silverbacks 3 (Trail leads best of seven 3-0)
Merritt Centennials 4, West Kelowna Warriors 3 (OT) (Merritt Wins series 4-0)
Victoria Grizzlies 3, Nanaimo Clippers 2 (Grizzlies lead best of seven 2-1)
Powell River Kings 5, Cowichan Valley Capitals 0 (Powell River leads best of seven 3-0)
Chilliwack Chiefs 3, Langley Rivermen 2 (Chiefs lead best of seven 3-1)
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