Offensive Outburst Leads to Split with Janesville
March 24, 2025 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Minnesota Wilderness News Release
The Minnesota Wilderness scoring engine was running on all cylinders Saturday night, as it churned out an 8-1 victory over the Janesville Jets. This followed Friday night's contest which Janesville (15-32-6) won 5-3.
Brady Zugec led the Wilderness (25-24-4) with a hat trick Saturday night, in what was Minnesota's biggest offensive output of the season.
With one win on the weekend, Minnesota earned two points, allowing the squad to keep pace with the Chippewa Steel. Chippewa also earned two points and remains six points ahead of the Wilderness in the Midwest Division standings. The Steel occupy fourth place in the division, which is the Midwest's final Robertson Cup playoff spot; Minnesota sits in fifth place.
Chippewa has seven games left on its 2024-25 regular season, while the Wilderness have six. The two squads meet for the final time next weekend (March 28-29). Friday's contest will be in Cloquet, with a 7:15 p.m. puck drop, and Saturday's matchup will be in Chippewa Falls, WI, beginning at 7:00 p.m.
Friday: Janesville 5, Wilderness 3
The Jets broke a 3-3 tie in game 1 with a third period power play goal and tacked on one more on an empty net to beat the Wilderness for the first time in five meetings in 2024-25.
Minnesota scored all its goals in the second period. After Janesville opened with the game's first two tallies, Frantisek Netusil pumped in his team-leading 27 th of the season at the 6:48 mark, with assists from Jakeb Lynch and Luke Margenau to make the scored 2-1.
The Jets restored their 2-goal lead just under four minutes later, but the Wilderness would countered with tallies from Nate Murray and River Freeman before the second frame ended. Murray made it 3-2 with his 14th of the campaign with Freeman and Brady Zugec assisting with 5:18 left. That was followed by Freeman getting the equalizer on his 7 th of the season with 3:25 remaining in the frame with Ben Roulette and Thomas Manzella gaining helpers.
Special teams turned out to be significant, as the Wilderness failed to score on three power play opportunities, and the Jets were successful on one chance.
The Jets outshot Minnesota, 31-26, with 16 of its shots coming in the first period. Valdemar Andersen suffered the loss for the Wilderness making 25 saves. Matthew Alberti earned the win for Janesville stopping 23 Minnesota shots.
Nick Messina led Janesville with two goals. Luke Brierley posted the game-winner on the man-advantage with 7:15 left in regulation time while Philippe Lalonde and Rylen Brady also secured single goals.
Saturday: Wilderness 8, Janesville 1
After again falling behind in the first period and being outshot, Minnesota took command to close out the game with eight goals in the final two stanzas.
Brady Zugec scored the contest's final three goals for a natural hat trick - the first 3-goal game in his junior career.
Hans Hedlund posted Janesville's lone tally, which came with 3:36 left in the opening frame.
The Wilderness managed to tie the game and take a lead it would never relinquish with 2-goals just 48 seconds apart in the 2nd period. First Jakeb Lynch tied the game after a puck battle on the right boards led to a pass to Lynch as he was all alone in the slot in front of the Jets net. The rookie then rocketed a shot that went top shelf past Janesville goaltender Christian Kirsch at the 4:12 mark of the middle frame for his 17th of the season.
Frantisek Netusil and Lucas Jendek assisted on Lynch's goal. Netusil then notched a goal of his own later in that shift, when he redirected a shot from Payton Struck for his 28th of the campaign. Zach Homer also assisted on the marker which came at the 5:00 mark.
Before the 2nd period would end, River Freeman added one more to give the Wilderness a 3-1. Freeman's eighth of the season came with assists from Ben Roulette and Landon Cottingham.
A short-handed goal from Jendek kicked off the 3rd period scoring, as he posted his 11th of the season 2:24 into the period. His third shorty of the year was assisted by Karson Young and Olle Karlsson.
Noah Dziver then made the score 5-1 with his 16th of the season at the 5:15 mark with Homer and Struck assisting.
Zugec followed with his 8th, 9th and 10th goals of the year. Karlsson and Avery Anderson set up Zugec for goal number 1 at the 6:39 mark. HIs second goal came with 7:27 left and was assisted by Lynch and Young and his third goal came on the power play, with helpers from Freeman and Dziver.
Minnesota outshot the Jets 37-32. Janesville had the advantage in the first period, with a 12-6 count, keeping Wilderness netminder Nick Erickson busy as he made 11 saves. Erickson then turned aside the remaining 20 shots he faced to earn the victory.
Janesville replaced Kirsch with 13:20 left in the third period, after he stopped 24 of 30 Minnesota shots. He was relieved by Matthew Alberti who faced seven shots and made five saves.
The Wilderness power play finished 1-for-3 and its penalty kill kept Janesville scoreless on four opportunities.
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