Division Clinched: Wilderness Sweep to Lock up First Ever Regular Season Division Crown
NAHL Minnesota Wilderness

Division Clinched: Wilderness Sweep to Lock up First Ever Regular Season Division Crown

Published on March 16, 2026 under North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Minnesota Wilderness News Release


Two wins this weekend over the Springfield Jr. Blues extended the Minnesota Wilderness lead in the Midwest Division to the point where they cannot be caught and secured the team's first division title in its NAHL history.

The Wilderness knocked off Springfield, 4-1, Friday, and 6-2, Saturday, to sweep the 2-game weekend series at the Nelson Center in Springfield, IL. Those victories give Minnesota (37-9-4) 78 points on the regular season and a 15-point lead over the second place Fairbanks Ice Dogs and 16-point advantage over the third place Wisconsin Windigo. Fairbanks does not have enough games remaining on its regular season schedule to surpass the Wilderness in points. The Windigo could finish tied in points, but cannot match Minnesota in regulation wins, which is the first tiebreaker.

The series sweep also set a new team record of road regular season victories with 20 and extended its streak of road games played without a regulation loss to 12.

In addition, the Wilderness have now scored a cumulative total of 217 goals this season, which surpasses the team's previous season high of 216, set in 2021-22.

Minnesota still has nine games remaining on the regular 2025-26 docket, with three games set for next weekend. The Wilderness will meet the Chippewa Steel in a series beginning Thursday night in Chippewa Falls at 7:00 p.m. Their first home game as division champions will be Friday night, at 7:15 p.m., at Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Cloquet. The series will conclude with another contest in Chippewa Falls Saturday night at 7:00 p.m.

Friday: Wilderness 4, Springfield 1

After giving up the first goal Friday, the Wilderness answered quickly and followed with three more unanswered to take game 1 of the weekend series.

Olle Karlsson led with one goal and one assist. His lone tally ended up being the game-winner. Ryan Gerlich held off the Jr. Blues with 39 saves on 40 shots for his fifth straight victory in net.

Springfield opened the scoring when Theodor Boden converted on a 2-on-1 4:42 into the first period. Minnesota responded just 38 seconds later when Logan Nagle fired in a rebound of a shot from Avery Anderson. Karlsson also assisted on Nagle's eighth of the season.

2:31 later, Karlsson notched his sixth of the campaign with an unassisted goal. The veteran from Nacka, Sweden, intercepted an errant Springfield clearing attempt, and whipped a shot past goaltender Nicolas Rempel from the right circle to put the Wilderness in a lead it would not give up.

Zach Homer added one more before the first period concluded. Homer posted his team-leading 35th of the season on a delayed penalty call. With 29 seconds left, Homer deposited the puck with another shot from the right circle, with assists going to Theo Kiss and Kevin Lysohir.

The Wilderness faced its stiffest test of the game early in the second period. A pair of penalties five seconds apart gave the Jr. Blues a two-man advantage for 1:55. Minnesota went on to kill that power play thanks to with Landon Cottingham playing a huge role blocking three shots. Gerlich was also instrumental as he made several key saves.

Springfield put 19 shots on the Wilderness net in the middle frame, with Gerlich closing the door each time.

For the game, the Jr. Blues outshot Minnesota, 40-37.

The Wilderness completed the scoring with an empty net goal from Robinson Djian with 39 seconds remaining in the third period. Noah Dziver made history on that marker with an assist, which gives him 62 points on the season and sets a new Wilderness single-season record.

Neither team managed to score on the power play. Minnesota finished with two chances, while Springfield had four opportunities.

Saturday: Wilderness 6, Springfield 2

River Freeman and Caleb Kim led the charge in the Saturday rematch, as each posted two goals. Kim added an assist to give him a 3-point game. Single tallies went to newcomer Cole Cheeseman, who was playing in his first junior contest, and Jackson Reeves.

Freeman opened the scoring when he fired in a rebound of a shot from Brandon Vislay 5:21 into the first frame. The first of the night for Freeman was also assisted by Kim. The assist from Vislay resulted in his first point in his second game with the Wilderness.

Another generating his first assist led to Reeves' goal just 2:20 later. Avenir Belous ejected the puck out of the Wilderness zone and caught Reeves racing through center ice. Reeves then carried the puck across the Springfield blue line, juked around the lone defender in front of him and beat goaltender Amir Valiullin for his ninth goal of the season and increase the Wilderness lead to 2-0.

Springfield got on the scoreboard late in the first with a power play goal from Niko Laus, but Minnesota wasted little time responding.

Andrei Gudin applied a tight forecheck that forced a turnover and centering pass to Talan Blanck who then sent the puck to Cheeseman near the left post. With 2:22 left, Cheeseman fired the puck into a wide-open cage to restore the Wilderness advantage to two goals at 3-1.

The Jr. Blues would again eat into the Wilderness advantage thanks to Drew Berres lighting the lamp 3:48 into the second period. But once again, Minnesota responded shortly after.

Ryan DeAngelis and Max Edwards would connect to Kim post his first goal of the contest. The play started when DeAngelis held up Springfield as it attempted to enter Minnesota's defensive zone. As soon as DeAngelis received the puck he immediately sent it to Edwards as he approached the Springfield blue line along the left boards. With Kim skating down the middle, Edwards caught him with a pass and Kim then fired the puck past Valiullin to give Minnesota 4-2 lead with 12:55 left in the second period.

Kim struck again in the third with a breakaway tally that gave the Wilderness a 3-goal advantage. This play also started in the defensive end when Avery Anderson blocked a shot and sent a pass to neutral ice that hit Kim in stride behind the Jr. Blues defense. Kim posted his 16th goal of the season after he faked going to his left and then moved to his right to slip the puck between Valiullin's outstretched left leg and the nearby post 1:19 into the final stanza.

Freeman added an empty net goal with 1:30 left to notch his 16th of the year and complete the scoring.

Meanwhile, on his 21 st birthday, Valdemar Andersen secured the Wilderness net making 23 saves on 25 shots for his 21 st win of the season. Minnesota outshot Springfield, 42-25.

In a losing effort, Valiullin stopped 36 of 41 Minnesota shots.

Springfield was the only squad to strike on the power play, as it went 1-for-2. The Wilderness were scoreless on two opportunities.

Check out the Minnesota Wilderness Statistics

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North American Hockey League Stories from March 16, 2026


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