Wenatchee Wild advance to BCHL championship series

It will be the Wenatchee Wild against the Prince George Spruce Kings in the British Columbia Hockey League championship series.

A four-goal second period, including two tallies from playoff leading scorer Jasper Weatherby, propelled the Wenatchee Wild to a 6-1 home win over the Trail Smoke Eaters Friday night that has advanced the Wild into the Fred Page Cup BCHL Finals.

After a scoreless first, Weatherby and Lucas Sowder scored two minutes apart early in the second to give the Wild all the offence they would need.

Blaine Caton got Trail on the board shortly after Sowder’s goal, but Cooper Zech scored for Wenatchee just before the midway point of the second to restore the two-goal lead for the home side.

Weatherby supplied his second of the night late in the period.

In the third, AJ Vanderbeck and August Von Ungern added on for the Wild to round out the scoring.

This will be the first trip to the finals for the Wild, who are in just their third season of operation as a BCHL club.

They will be facing the Prince George Spruce Kings, who are also making their first appearance in the finals, when the best-of-seven championship series starts this weekend.

Wenatchee finished in third place in the BCHL Interior Division, behind the league-leading Penticton Vees and second-place Vernon Vipers.

Wenatchee knocked off Vernon in the division semi-finals in six games, while the Vees were upset by Trail, who finished in fourth place in the division, in game seven at the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton.