Ground Gained After Split Series with Anchorage
February 19, 2025 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Minnesota Wilderness News Release
The Minnesota Wilderness moved up to a tie for 6th place in the Midwest Division and inched a bit closer to the division's final playoff spot after splitting a home weekend series vs. the Anchorage Wolverines.
The Wilderness won game 1 of the series Friday night, 6-2, while the Wolverines (27-11-4) came back to claim Saturday's rematch, 6-4. By earning two points, the Wilderness (19-20-4) are now tied for 6 th place with the Kenai River Brown Bears, who managed only one point in a weekend set vs. the Janesville Jets. Minnesota also moved within six points of the Chippewa Steel who occupy 4th place in the division and did not play this weekend. The top four teams in each division qualify for the NAHL's Robertson Cup playoffs.
The Wilderness and Kenai River will get a chance to break their deadlock in the division standings this weekend when Minnesota hosts the Brown Bears for a 2-game series in Cloquet. The matchups set for Feb. 21 and 22 will have a 7:15 p.m. puck drop both nights.
Friday: Wilderness 6, Anchorage 2
After giving Friday's first goal about midway through opening period, the Wilderness took command.
Minnesota evened the score then added two more tallies in the second period to take a 3-1 lead before Anchorage scored one more to make it 3-2 going into the third. The Wilderness finished the contest with three in the final frame
Noah Dziver led Minnesota with two goals, while Jakeb Lynch had three assists. Others with multiple points were Zach Homer and Frantisek Netusil, who each had one goal and one assist, while Luke Margenau finished with two helpers.
Logan Nagle and Ben Doll scored single goals, while Nate Murray, Sam Troutwine, Owen Smith and Payton Struck each earned one assist.
After Jack Darby opened the scoring for the Wolverines with a power play tally 5:48 after the first puck drop, Homer tied the game with 6:26 left in the opening period. Dziver then followed with two consecutive in the second period to put the Wilderness in front to stay-his first on the power play 1:21 and again at 10:17.
Anchorage cut the lead to 3-2 thanks to a Cam Shasby goal with 4:16 left in the middle frame.
Special teams made a big difference as Minnesota finished 3-for-8 on the man-advantage, with two of its goals posted after Anchorage was called for a 5-minute major penalty.
After Doll restored the Wilderness' two-goal lead 7:13 into the third, those two power play markers followed giving Minnesota additional insurance. Netusil deposited his goal just moments after completing a penalty of his own to light the lamp for the 22 nd time this season. Nagle then made the scored to make it 6-2 with a goal on the same power play just 2:02 later on an empty Wolverine net.
Nick Erickson was the winner in net stopping 24 of 26 shots.
The Wilderness outshot Anchorage 29-26. With 23 saves, Michael Manzi took the loss for the Wolverines while facing 28 shots.
Anchorage finished 1-for-4 on the power play.
Saturday: Anchorage 6, Wilderness 4
Much like Friday night, the team scoring the game's first goal was not victorious Saturday.
The Wilderness opened Saturday with a 2-0 lead, thanks to a power tally from Owen Smith and short-handed goal from Avery Anderson. The Wolverines then scored four straight in the second period before Olle Karlsson moved Minnesota back within one going into the third period.
In the final frame, the two squads traded tallies that were 29 seconds apart to make the score 5-4 in favor of Anchorage. The Wolverines then finished the game with an empty-net goal in the final minute.
Smith, Anderson and Karlsson each added one assist for a 2-point night. Luke Margenau posted two assists while single assists went to Caleb Kim, Jakeb Lynch and Ben Roulette.
Anderson's goal was one that likely could make its way to many highlight reels. The Wilderness were in the process of killing a 5-on-3 power play when Smith cleared the puck through center. That led to a race for the loose puck between Anderson and Anchorage's Jack Darby. Anderson won the race and retrieved the puck just within the Wolverine zone, and he managed to score by slipping the puck through Wolverine goaltender William Lubimov's 5-hole by using the tip of his stick blade.
That was the final goal Lubimov gave up as he was replaced by Michael Manzi at the beginning of the 2nd period. Lubimov stopped five of seven Minnesota shots. Manzi earned the win with 15 saves on 17 shots.
Nick Erickson again played the entire game for Minnesota, stopping 32 of 37 Anchorage shots.
Anchorage outshot the Wilderness, 38-24, that included a 31-14 shot-advantage through the first two periods.
The Wolverines were paced offensively by six different goal scorers. Taisetsu Ushio, Cole Christian, Patrick Tolan, and Landon Greenough all struck in the second period, while third period goals were scored by Aaron Van Wie and Daniel Bagnole.
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