The Gillette Wild took their fifth and sixth consecutive victories over the weekend.
At the Butte Cobras’ Butte Community Ice Center, the Wild won 6-2 on Friday and 9-2 on Saturday to continue their win streak and take a No. 2 ranking in the Frontier Division.
On Saturday, the Wild completed the sweep and barraged the Butte goaltender Aiden Waal with 72 shots. They netted nine of them including two goals each from Tyler Kaminski and Keedin Denny.
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Gillette’s Hunter Beckett scored with 8:07 played in the first period to put the Wild ahead 1-0 to start, and no other goals were recorded in the first frame.
Butte’s Nick Bradshaw scored at 12:35 to play in the second period and the game was tied with just over half a game left to play in Montana. Kaminski then scored 7 minutes later and Denny tallied his two goals later in the second period to give the Wild a 4-1 lead.
Caleb Sanborn, Kaminski, Declan Young, Devon Dunn and Ethan Becker all scored in the third period. Butte scored one in the third, but couldn’t come back, and lost the series final 9-2.
Wild goaltender Shane Phillips stopped 21-of-23 shots on net during the game. The Wild out-shot the Cobras 72-23.
In the series’ first game, the Wild shot shot the puck on net 85 times but Waal saved 76 of them and Gillette came out with a 6-2 victory.
Gillette’s Nathaniel Fanning scored the first goal of the game just after the midway point of the first period and Wild forward Jacob Kaminski netted another with 3:51 to play in the first period for a 2-0 Wild lead.
After a scoreless second period, Gillette’s Pablo Palos tallied a third goal for the Wild before the Cobras struck back with two back-to-back goals of their own for a threatening 3-2 score in favor of Gillette.
But Fanning scored again, and Young scored two goals, all in the last 10 minutes of the third period to seal the game as a 6-2 Gillette Victory.
Phillips started Friday’s game as well, and saved 24 of the 26 shots he faced.
Mason Hoffman tallied four assists in Friday’s game.
There were no power play goal scored by either team over the weekend.
The Gillette Wild are scheduled to play the Missoula Junior Bruins, a team they swept Sept. 20-21, for their next weekend series Friday and Saturday at Glacier Ice Rink in Missoula, Montana.
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