Potential Playoff Preview Awaits First Trip to Springfield
NAHL Minnesota Wilderness

Potential Playoff Preview Awaits First Trip to Springfield

Published on February 27, 2026 under North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Minnesota Wilderness News Release


Five months after the Minnesota Wilderness and Springfield Jr. Blues first met to launch the 2025-26 season, the two squads finally meet again this weekend for their second scheduled 2-game series. The Wilderness are in Springfield, IL, for games Friday and Saturday (Feb. 27-28) at the Nelson Center against the Jr. Blues.

These contests mark the first of six Minnesota and Springfield will play before the end of the 25-26 campaign and may lead to even more when post-season play begins in April. If their positioning in the NAHL Midwest Division standings remain intact for when playoffs begin, the first place Wilderness and fourth place Jr. Blues will meet in a first round series.

Minnesota triumphed in their two prior meetings with Springfield. In games played Sept. 12-13, 2025, in Cloquet, the Wilderness won 4-2 and 6-2, respectively.

Last weekend, the Wilderness split their 2-game home series vs. the Kenai River Brown Bears, falling Friday (Feb. 20), 5-1, while bouncing back for 2-0 win Saturday (Feb. 21).

Meanwhile, the Jr. Blues did not play last weekend. In its last outing, Springfield hosted the Fairbanks Ice Dogs and was victorious on Feb. 13, 3-1, before falling 9-2 on Feb. 14.

Game times for the series this weekend will be 7:05 p.m., Friday, and 6:05 p.m., Saturday.

Wilderness Birthday: Feb. 24 - Owen Smith (20)

Media: Watch all games on NAHLTV.com.

Tale of the Tape

Team GF GA PP PK

Wilderness 200 (4.35 GFPG) 115 (2.5 GAPG) 35 for 175 (20%) 31 for 175 (82.3%)

Springfield 142 (3.16 GFPG) 132 (2.9 GAPG) 41 for 193 (21.2%) 21 for 147 (85.7%)

Midwest Division standings

Place Team Games Played Points This week's opponent (all games Fri./Sat. unless otherwise noted)

1 Wilderness 46 70 2 @ Springfield

2 Fairbanks 47 57 2 @ Kenai River

3 Wisconsin 45 55 Home/home vs. Janesville

4 Springfield 45 53 2 vs. Wilderness

5 Anchorage 46 49 2 vs. Chippewa

6 Janesville 45 43 Home/home vs. Wisconsin

7 Kenai River 44 33 2 vs. Fairbanks

8 Chippewa 44 19 2 @ Anchorage

Check out the Minnesota Wilderness Statistics

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North American Hockey League Stories from February 27, 2026


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