The Kelowna Rockets dropped a wild game one in their best-of-seven opening round series against the Wenatchee Wild on Friday night.
In the first period of the Mar. 29 contest, the Rockets came out on fire. They got two goals from Tij Iginla, a goal from Max Graham, and a goal from Gabriel Szturc to lead 4-1 after the first frame.
Wenatchee scored 20 seconds into the second period to cut the deficit in half but at the 6:18 mark of the frame, Iginla completed the hat trick to make it 5-2.
Then the Rockets got into penalty trouble as the Wild scored three powerplay goals in a 3:16 span to tie the game 5-5.
As the period was winding down, Marek Rocak scored to regain the lead for the Rockets with 57 seconds to go in the period but Briley Wood completed his own hat trick with 17 seconds left, tying the game 6-6 going into the third.
At the 7:06 mark of the third period, Wood scored his fourth goal of the game to give Wenatchee a 7-6 lead they would never look back on. Kenta Isogai added an empty net goal with two seconds left to make the final 8-6 and giving the Wild the 1-0 lead in the series.
Wood also had two assists, making it a six-point night.
Six Rockets had multi-point efforts in the contest, despite the loss.
Jari Kykkanen made 29 saves in the loss for Kelowna while Daniel Hauser made 29 saves to earn the win.
The puck drops on game two of the seven-game series on Saturday night at 6 p.m. at the Town Toyota Center in Wenatchee.
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