Season's First Shutout Leads to Split with Jets
NAHL Minnesota Wilderness

Season's First Shutout Leads to Split with Jets

Published on November 24, 2025 under North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Minnesota Wilderness News Release


The Minnesota Wilderness played their final home games of the 2025 portion of the 25-26 schedule with a split series vs. the Janesville Jets. The Jets opened the weekend with a 5-2 triumph Friday, before the Wilderness countered with a 3-0 win, Saturday.

Valdemar Andersen backstopped the team to victory Saturday for his and the team's first shutout of the season.

Minnesota is now off until December 5-6 when they take on the Fairbanks Ice Dogs in Marshall, MN. The Wilderness currently occupies first place in the Midwest Division with the Ice Dogs just two points behind in 2nd place.

Minnesota will then complete its December schedule with road games at Chippewa on Dec. 12-13 and Wisconsin on Dec. 19-20. The Wilderness' next home contest is scheduled for New Year's Day against the Chippewa Steel.

Friday: Janesville 5, Wilderness 2

After Minnesota took a 2-1 lead midway through the first period, the Jets countered with four unanswered goals to skate away with a 5-2 win.

For the second straight game, Minnesota gave up multiple tallies on the penalty kill, and one ended up being the game-winner. The Jets scored on back-to-back power plays, the first from Murray Marvin-Cordes with 2:08 left in the first period to tie the game at 2-2, and the second with 15 seconds left from Justin Bloink, to take a 3-2 lead.

Janesville then went on to score twice in the third period to seal the victory.

River Freeman notched two goals for the Wilderness, bumping up his total for the season to five. Andrei Gudin assisted on both markers.

Freeman's first red-lighter tied the game just eight seconds after Janesville's Grant Dillard gave the visitors a 1-0 lead. Freeman was directly in front of Jet goaltender Roman Batih when he collected a rebound of a shot from Gudin and tucked it into the net.

The second came after Gudin applied a tight forecheck and intercepted a Janesville attempt to clear its zone. He then found Freeman all alone in the right circle who whipped the puck into the back of the net on a wrist shot with 7:37 left in the stanza.

Also scoring for Janesville was Brody Olson and Jonathan Lyskawa.

The Wilderness outshot the Jets, 27-20.

Batih earned the victory in net with 25 saves on 27 shots.

Minnesota's Valdemar Anderson took the loss stopping 15 of 19 Jet shots.

On the power play, Minnesota finished 0-for-2, while Janesville went 2-for-5.

Saturday: Wilderness 3, Janesville 0

A capacity crowd watched Andersen make 23 saves for the second shutout of his career.

The Wilderness also limited Janesville chances, allowing the Jets just two opportunities on the power play.

Offensively, Zach Homer scored twice, while Noah Dziver registered one goal.

The Wilderness began the game with three consecutive power plays but failed to convert, despite maintaining offensive zone pressure through the vast majority of the penalty time.

Homer then struck when skated in on a 2-on-1 break with Talan Blanck. With Homer on the right, and Blanck skating down the middle, Homer used Blanck as a decoy and skated below the right circle before slipping the puck between goaltender Roman Batih and the right post to make the score 1-0.

The Wilderness took advantage of a Janesville turnover to make it 2-0. Dziver intercepted a Jet clearing attempt in the Janesville end that created a 2-on-1 with Kevin Lysohir. With Lysohir skating into the left circle, Dziver fed him the puck, and Lysohir delivered it right back, and before Batih could get back in position, Dziver threw the puck into an almost wide open cage. That goal, at the 3:13 mark of the 2nd period, gives Dziver 13 on the season.

Homer would add an empty tally with 3:10 remaining in the third period. Max Edwards, playing his first game with the Wilderness, assisted on Homer's team-leading 15th of the campaign.

Minnesota outshot the Jets 32-23. Batih took the loss making 29 saves.

The Wilderness finished scoreless on six power play chances.

Check out the Minnesota Wilderness Statistics

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North American Hockey League Stories from November 24, 2025


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