The Chilliwack Chiefs are just one win away from a sweep of the Wenatchee Wild after a game three win Tuesday night at Prospera Centre.
Jordan Kawaguchi scored three goals and Mark Sinclair turned aside 34 shots in a 6-2 win that puts Chilliwack on the verge of an improbable accomplishment. The Chiefs winning the series wouldn’t be a huge surprise, but the idea they might dump the BCHL’s best regular season team in four games is a shocker.
They’ll get the chance to complete the sweep tomorrow (Wednesday) night.
After a scoreless first period in game three, Chilliwack’s penalty kill came through with a huge effort early in period two to keep the score at zeroes. Back to back minors to Olivier Arseneau (holding) and Anthony Vincent (slashing) gave Wenatchee a two-man advantage for 57 seconds, but aside from one Mark Sinclair glove save on Brian Williams, the visitors didn’t threaten.
Seconds after the penalties expired the Chiefs opened the scoring on a Ben Fanjoy goal. Linemates Cole Poliziani and Aaron O’Neill did the grunt work, digging the puck out of a scrum in the left corner. Fanjoy did well to evade one Wenatchee defender as he cut into the slot and squeaked a should-have-been-stopped shot through Wenatchee netminder Anthony Yamnitsky.
Seventy four seconds later, Kawaguchi collected his first point of the series on a beautiful cross-ice stretch pass to Kohen Olischefski. Catching the puck in stride, Olly swooped in and put the puck under the cross-bar.
Olishefski’s snipe chased Yamnitsky from the Wenatchee net, with backup Devin Cooley taking his place.
Wenatchee got one back just 22 seconds later on a Brendan Harris goal as the BCHL scoring champ waded into the blue paint and poked home the rebound of a Charlie Combs shot.
The Guch to Olly combo was at it again minutes later, this time in reverse. An Olischefski pass sprung Kawaguchi and Anthony Vincent on a two-on-one, with Tyler Rockwell the lone defender back. When Rockwell sprawled out to block the pass, Captain K pulled the puck inside and rifled it over Cooley’s mitt for a 3-1 Chilliwack lead.
The Chiefs added two more in the opening minutes of period three, both by Kawaguchi.
Connor McCarthy set up the first on 25 seconds in with a wrist shot from the top of the right faceoff circle. Cooley kicked out a juicy rebound that Gooch buried on the backhand, ending Cooley’s time in the cage.
Wenatchee head coach Bliss Littler switched goalies again, putting Yamnitsky back into the game.
The netminder barely had a moment to settle in when a Vincent spinarama pass found Kawaguchi uncovered near the left post and No. 28 snuck a five hole shot through Yamnitsky.
Both goals came on the power play.
Combs got a late one for the Wild, cutting through the goal mouth to stuff a rebound past Chiefs goalie Mark Sinclair.
Unbelievably for the 51 goal regular season scorer it was his first of the playoffs.
The Wild pulled Yamnitsky for an extra attacker with just under three minutes remaining and Vincent scored into the empty net with 38.4 ticks left.
The three stars were Kawaguchi (first), Sinclair (second) and Olischefski (third).
The Fortis BC Energy Player of the Game was Linden Hora.
Announced attendance was 1,909