Wild Down in 1st Round Series

The Gillette Wild Junior Hockey Tier III team are in an 0-2 hole in their best of 5 1st round playoff series with the Yellowstone Quake after dropping both games this weekend in Cody.

In game 1 on Friday at Victor J Riley arena in Cody the Wild fell behind 2-0 on 2nd period goals by the Quake's Trent Carter and Orri Haman and then Trent Dillinger on an assist by Moco Willis pulled Gillette to within a goal, but that would be all the offense they would get as they fell to Yellowstone 4-1.

Goalie Brendan Kruckenberg faced 41 shots on goal and made 37 saves as he was credited with the loss while his counterpart for Yellowstone, Jared Schletty, stopped all, but 1 of the 34 shots he faced.

Then on Saturday in game 2 in the Wild's 6-2 loss to the Quake, Gillette was able to tie the game at 1 after Dillinger scored the 1st power play goal of the playoff for the Wild on assists by Tyler Johnson and Boris Knyazev just over the midway point of 1st period. Yellowstone's Brandon Busses made it 2-1 going into the 1st intermission and then just 1 minute and 44 seconds into the 2nd period Johnson tied it up again for the Wild on an assist by Brandon Wilbert, but that was the last time Gillette scored as the Quake went on to score 4 unanswered goals and put the Wild in a 2-0 hole.

Gillette's Nick Vittori faced 54 shots while stopping 48 of them in the loss while the Quake's Schletty once again was the winning goalie while stopping the 29 of 31 shots he faced.

Next up for the Wild is a must win game 3 on Friday, March 15th at Spirit Hall Ice Arena at 7pm. If the Wild can win on Friday they'll force a game 4 on Saturday and game 5, also if necessary, on Sunday will both be played at home for Gillette.

For more on the Wild go to http://gillettewildhockey.pointstreaksites.com/view/gillettewildhockey