TRAVERSE CITY -- If Wenatchee was tired, it's scary to think what the Wild are like then they're fully rested.
Wenatchee -- one of only two undefeated teams remaining in the North American Hockey League three weeks into the season -- spoiled Traverse City's home opener with a 3-2 victory in a matchup of early division leaders.
In the fourth day of a grueling stretch of five road games in as many days, the Wild (10-0-0) flexed their muscle early on the power play, scoring twice with a man advantage to take a 2-0 lead before the North Stars (5-3-0) stormed back to knot it up 2-2 on Dan Radke's second-period goal.
"That team has the best power play in the league," North Stars coach Anthony Palumbo said. "They had two power-play goals and our penalty kill is not very good right now. It got better in the second and third after we made some adjustments."
The Wild, who played in the Robertson Cup finals last season, scored the deciding goal 14 seconds after a timeout, as Nathan Sliwinski put in his own rebound in a scrum around the net with 4:50 remaining.
The talk during the timeout was simple: "I told them to get a rest and win the last five minutes," Wenatchee coach Paul Baxter said.
"All three (of our) losses have been a lot like this -- pucks in front of the net," Palumbo said. "I was happy with the way we came back, but I'm concerned with our lack of ability to get the puck to the net."
Playing without leading returning scorer Kyle Jean and All-Star defenseman Chris Heineman, the Stars are depending on some newcomers to step up in the interim.
"I think we have the ability to be one of the best teams in the league, but we have things to work on," Palumbo said. "The scrambles in front of the net -- it seems like we're giving up one or two of those a game."
The Wild have been the league's most dominant team. Only they and St. Louis haven't lost a game, and the Bandits have played just four compared to Wenatchee's 10. The Wild have twice as many points as the third highest totals in the league, 10 each by Marquette and TC.
"Traverse City is the best team we're played, by far," Baxter said.
The Wild have scored as many power-play goals already as 11 NAHL teams have total goals, including the entire Central Division.
Traverse City handed the Wild a 2-0 first-period lead by drawing whistles.
A Curtis Heintz roughing call led to a Duncan McKellar power-play tally 4:58 into the game and an Eric McLintock roughing penalty gave way to McKellar's second goal with the man advantage with 8:18 left.
Wenatchee -- which came into the game having scored 17 of its 36 goals on the power play -- had only one even-strength shot on goal in the entire first period and none through the first 15 minutes. In contrast, the Stars had only seven goals with the advantage among their 30 coming into the contest.
But TC got one back on a McLintock even-strength goal set up by Doug Clifford and Garrett Thompson to draw within a goal going into the second stanza.
In a second period that lacked as much flow as the first -- at least early on -- the Stars generated several quality opportunities, including a redirection by Clifford of a Heintz shot that clanged off the left post. Drew Strandberg prevented a prime Wenatchee chance by stick poking the puck away before Sargis could jump on a loose puck in front of the crease.
Traverse City had a power play that had been humming for two quality chances in 52 seconds wiped out by a McLintock slash, but bounced back for a Dan Radke tying goal 33 seconds later, with Nilan Nagy and Kelin Ainsworth picking up assists on the even-strength marker that sent the game into the third period in a 2-2 deadlock.
Strandberg made 31 saves as the Stars were outshot 34-23.
The Stars pulled Strandberg with 1:21 to go, and Radke won two big face-offs in the final 11 seconds in Wenatchee's zone, but Traverse City came up empty on both.
The two teams will meet again tonight for a 7 p.m. face-off.
ICE CHIPS: Defenseman Bo Jacobs destroyed Wenatchee's Joe Kozlak in a third-period fight. ... The game was delayed for more than six minutes to fix the glass in front of the scorer's table with 2:01 left. ... NAHL commissioner Mark Frankenfeld and North Stars part owner and former NHL player Dallas Drake dropped the ceremonial first pucks. ... The North stars unveiled their new home whites, which feature the same logos and fonts, but have a thick dark blue band around the upper arm with red piping instead of the blue shoulder-and-arm design last year. ... The Wild could just as well be called the Minnesota Wild, as the team has twice as many players from the Land of 1,000 Lakes (eight) than from Washington state (four). ... Tickets to today's rematch are $5 to anyone with a student ID. ... McKellar was the No. 1 star of the game, followed by TC's Radke and Clifford.
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