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NAHL Minnesota Wilderness

Offensive Spark Leads to Sweep in Janesville

December 8, 2024 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Minnesota Wilderness News Release


The Minnesota Wilderness had its best offensive output of the season in a weekend sweep of the Janesville Jets.

The Wilderness combined for 12 goals over the 2-game series, with a 5-1 victory Friday and 7-2 win Saturday.

Jakeb Lynch led Minnesota with seven points, combining for two goals and five assists over the weekend.

This marks Minnesota's second road sweep of the season and extends its winning streak to three games.

Friday: Minnesota 5, Janesville 1

After Janesville opened the scoring, the Wilderness responded with five straight goals to claim the victory in the series opener.

Sullivan Miller notched the game's first goal with 3:13 left in the first, but the Wilderness wasted little time in posting an equalizer. Noah Dziver tied the contest with his third goal of the season on the power play with 26 seconds left. Lynch assisted on the tally (along with Joey Sylvester) for his first of what would be three points on the night.

Sylvester then put the Wilderness ahead to stay with another power play tally at the 11:05 mark of the second, which was also his third of the year. Minnesota then added three more goals in third period, two from Lynch and one from Payton Struck. Lynch made it 3-1 with 4:45 left and then added an empty-net goal (his eighth of the season) with 1 minute left to play. After Janesville goaltender Christian Kirsch returned to

the net, Struck deposited his goal with 8 seconds remaining.

Adding assists for the Wilderness was Zach Homer with three, and single helpers going to Brady Zugec, Avery Anderson, Ben Roulette, and Nick Erickson who became the first Wilderness goaltender to get on the scoresheet this season.

The Wilderness peppered the Janesville net, putting up 45 shots compared to 22 for the Jets. Nick Erickon earned the win in goal with 21 saves; while Kirsch took the loss with 40 saves.

Minnesota was whistled for only one minor penalty and kept the Jets without a single power play chance in the game. Meanwhile the Wilderness went 2-for-4 with the man-advantage.

Saturday: Wilderness 7, Janesville 2

Seven different goal scorers led the Wilderness to their highest scoring game of the season. Jakeb Lynch added three assists for a 4-point game, while Zach Homer and Noah Dziver had 3-point outings with each posting a goal and two assists.

Lucas Jendek, Avery Anderson and Luke Margenau also had multi-point games, with Jendek and Anderson generating one goal and one assist, while Margenau finished with two assists.

Single goals went to Caleb Kim and Payton Struck, while Drew Beasley and Ben Roulette finished with one assist.

Dziver and Anderson struck in the first period to give the Wilderness an early 2-0 lead. Janesville answered with a goal on its first power play of the weekend, when James Taylor found the back of the net early in period 2. Lynch then restored Minnesota's 2-goal lead just 51 seconds Later when he punched in a rebound of a shot from Dziver.

Jendek added one more later in the 2nd.

Homer, Struck and Kim added to the Wilderness lead in the third period, while Janesville added one more from Joseph Hyten.

For the second straight game, the Wilderness put more than 40 shots on the Janesville net, as Minnesota finished with a 41-39 shot advantage. Erickson won his third straight game, making 37 saves. The Jets' Matthew Alberti suffered the loss with 34 stops.

On special teams, Minnesota (12-13-3) finished 0-for-3 on the power play, while the Jets (6-15-3) went 1-for-3.

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