Bozeman Upsets Wild on Home Ice

It took 34 games, but it finally happened as the Bozeman Icedogs finally got their first win of the season and it came at the expense of the Gillette Wild on Saturday night at Spirit Hall Ice Arena.

One night after the Wild dominated the Icedogs 11-3, Gillette fell to Bozeman 3-2. With the game scoreless after the first period Bozeman got on the board first thanks to a power play goal from Tyler Elson at the 17:31 mark of the 2nd period.

The Icedogs made it 2-0 midway through the 3rd period when Jason Henry got the puck by Wild goalie Nick Vittori, who stopped 26 of the 29 shots he faced. Trent Dillinger finally got the Wild on the scoreboard on a power play goal assisted by Taylor Motsinger and Boris Knyazev, but just over 2 minutes later Bozeman got the eventual game winning goal on another power play goal as Jason Henry scored his 2nd goal of the game. 

Motsinger got the Wild within one when he scored an unassisted goal with 5 minutes remaining, but that would be the last goal of the game as the Icedogs and their goalie Jude Hull held the Wild scoreless the rest of the way. Hull ended up stopping 51 of the 53 shots he faced.

On Friday night in Gillette's blowout win over Bozeman they scored 7 2nd period goals to bury the Icedogs. Gillette got two goals apiece from Trent Dillinger and Tyler Cavan while Boris Knyazev, Darren Banks, Alex King, Matt Rose, Tyler Johnson, Taylor Motsinger and Blake Reynolds all scored once. Brendan Kruckenberg earned the win between the pipes as he stopped 16 of the 17 shots he faced before Sean Kelley came in for him early in the 3rd period.

Next up for the Wild is their toughest stretch of the season so far as they'll have 3 road games in 3 days, including games against the top two teams in the America West Hockey League. 1st off on Thursday, January 24th they'll be in Cody to take on the 2nd place Yellowstone Quake, then on Friday it's a trip to Helena to battle the 1st place Bighorns and then the Wild will close out the weekend on Saturday at the Billings Bulls.

For more on the Wild go to www.gillettewildhockey.com