It was too little, too late for the Kelowna Rockets on Wednesday night as they fell 5-4 to the Wenatchee Wild.

The Nov. 20th contest was a slow-burn through 40 minutes, as Rockets' Michael Cicek and the Wild's Maddix McCagherty exchanged powerplay goals. Cicek's ninth goal of the season came in the first period and was assisted by Andrew Cristall and Levi Benson. McCagherty's second-period marker was his sixth of the campaign and was assisted by Zane Saab.

But the game was touched up quite a few notches in the third period as goals were scored back and forth.

Wenatchee came out strong to start the period, getting goals from Eastyn Mannix (2) at the 2:45 mark and Shaun Rios (4) at the 4:15 mark.

Just under three minutes later, Kelowna's Kanjyu Gojsic found the back of the net for the third time this season to make it a one-goal game. The goal was helped by Kayden Longley and Brett Calhoon.

However, just a couple of minutes later, the Wild regained their two-goal lead as Lukas McCloskey scored a shorthanded goal.

With under eight minutes to go, Gojsic scored his second goal of the contest, to once again make it a one-goal game. Nate Corbet assisted on the goal, collecting his first point with the Rockets. Jackson Gillespie added a secondary assist.

But back and forth they go, Wenatchee made it 5-3 when Caelan Joudrey scored his fourth goal of the year at the 15:33 mark.

The Rockets got within one once again when captain Max Graham scored his seventh goal this season with just 28 seconds to go in the game, but that's as close as Kelowna would come. Cristall assisted on the goal.

Wenatchee fired 42 shots onto Rockets goalie Jake Pilon, who made 37 saves in the loss. Zach Zahara made 28 saves to earn the win for the Wild.

With the win, Wenatchee (8-10-3-0) leap-frogged the Rockets (8-9-1-1) in the standings. 

Kelowna is back in action on Friday night (Nov. 22) when the Rockets host the Vancouver Giants (9-6-4-0) at Prospera Place. Puck drop is at 7:05 p.m.