January 23, 2026 – Olympic Night

A NUTSHELL:

Wenatchee looks to exact a measure of revenge on the Blazers in their final meeting this regular season.

 

THE SCENE-SETTER:

The Wild got out to a hot start on Sunday, but ran out of gas late in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Seattle Thunderbirds at Town Toyota Center – the Wild got a pair of goals on deflections at the net in the opening minutes, with Boston Tait pitching a shot from the left point that was redirected by Mathias Silaban just 3:37 into the game. At 6:56, Josh Toll tossed a chance down the slot that was clipped by Caelan Joudrey for a 2-0 Wild advantage. Wenatchee defended that two-goal lead for much of the game, until Simon Lovsin lit the lamp to cut the lead to a goal with 3:29 left in the second period. Just six seconds into the third, Cameron Schmidt raced away from the crowd at the center circle and flipped the puck past Tobias Tvrznik to tie the game. The teams battled to a scoreless tie over the next 25 minutes, and Schmidt was the only player to net a goal in the three-round shootout. Tvrznik made 40 saves but was saddled with his second shootout loss of the year – Grayson Malinoski stopped 32 Wenatchee chances to pick up his fifth win of the year. Toll and Luka Shcherbyna each posted a point to keep pace with each other in the race for the team’s scoring lead, and the penalty-killing units combined to finish a perfect 6-for-6 on the night.

 

KNOW YOUR FOE:

Kamloops has not played since last Saturday’s get-together with the Wild at Sandman Centre, in which Wenatchee saw its offense chilled by Logan Edmonstone after putting up its hottest offensive performance of the year last Friday. Edmonstone pitched his third shutout of the season, stopping 26 shots in a 3-0 Blazers win in Kamloops – Ryan Michael’s toss from the left point was redirected by Owen Cooper 4:34 into the game to put the home team ahead, and Kamloops would defend that one-goal lead most of the way. It was almost 40 minutes later when Josh Evaschesen found the puck in the slot and dished it to the net past Cal Conway to double the lead, and Ty Bonkowski mailed a shot from the blue line into the empty net with 5:36 to play. No Kamloops player earned more than one point in the game, while Wild forward Levi Benson saw a three-game point streak halted. The penalty kills were perfect in the game, including a pair of successful kills for the Wild. Conway took the loss despite a solid night in net, stopping 25 of 27.

 

A NEAR-TOTAL BLACKOUT:

Wenatchee continues to kill opposing power plays at a remarkable pace – the Wild have gone 56-for-63 (88.9 percent) on the penalty kill over their last 16 games, sitting more than three full percentage points clear of second-place Edmonton in that category. The Wild have allowed multiple power play goals only once in that span, with a perfect performance in 12 of those games.

 

BREAK OUT THE BOOKS:

Friday’s game was worth breaking out the history books for – Wenatchee’s nine goals was a 2025-26 season high, and the most since a 10-2 win at Tri-City last January 5. Wenatchee’s nine goals was just one shy of the franchise record, achieved seven times but most recently last January 5. The current Wild franchise hadn’t scored nine in a home game since a 9-5 win in Winnipeg on November 17, 2022 against the Regina Pats, while the Town Toyota Center crowd had not witnessed a nine-goal game since a January 20, 2018 tilt against the Nanaimo Clippers in the club’s BCHL era.

 

TOP PROSPECTS PROSPECTUS:

The Western Hockey League announced its Top Prospects rosters this past week, with two Wenatchee players on the Team West roster – Tobias Tvrznik earned an invitation as the league’s second-ranked goaltender ahead of the NHL Draft this coming June, while Caelan Joudrey was selected as the 101^st-ranked North American skater on the NHL Central Scouting midterm rankings. All 23 teams have at least one representative on the roster for this year’s game, which is slated for Wednesday, February 18 at Langley Events Centre in Langley, British Columbia. This is the first WHL-only all-star or top-prospects event since the 2000 WHL All-Star Game in Kelowna.