Two Points Gained in Final Weekend Set at Wisconsin
March 17, 2025 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Minnesota Wilderness News Release
The Minnesota Wilderness continued its strong play against the first-place Wisconsin Windigo this weekend. The Wilderness completed its third straight split series against its border state rival, with a 2-1 victory Friday night, followed by a 6-3 loss Saturday night.
After dropping the first five contests in the regular season series vs. the Windigo (35-13-3), the Wilderness (24-23-4) won four of the final seven.
Minnesota remains in fifth place in the NAHL's Midwest Division, six points out of fourth place and the Midwest's final playoff spot. The Wilderness will seek to close that gap with seven of its final eight regular season games at home.
The Wilderness next hosts the Janesville Jets for a two-game series March 21-22 at Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Cloquet.
Friday: Wilderness 2, Wisconsin 1
Goaltender Valdemar Andersen helped the Wilderness grind out a one-goal victory.
Most of Andersen's 24 saves came in the third period when the Windigo outshot Minnesota, 11-5, and Andersen was perfect stopping all Wisconsin attempts.
Offensively, the Wilderness had goals from Payton Struck and Zach Homer.
After Alexios Georgaklis gave the Windigo a 1-0 lead 4:40 into the first period, Struck evened the score. Struck notched his fifth of the campaign with 3:10 remaining with an assist from Nate Murray
Homer broke the 1-1 tie early in the second period to score what ended up as the contest's game-winning tally while on the power play. Noah Dziver and Olle Karlsson assisted on Homer's 21 st of the season.
For the game, Wisconsin finished with a shot advantage of 25-23. Windigo netminder Lucas Szyszka stopped 21 of Minnesota's 23 shots.
On the power play, the Wilderness went 1-for-5 while the Windigo finished 0-for-2.
Saturday: Wisconsin 6, Wilderness 3
The Wilderness outscored Wisconsin in the third period, but could not overcome a 5-1 lead the Windigo built over the first two frames.
Frantisek Netusil, Zach Homer and Avery Anderson scored for Minnesota.
Netusil deposited his 25th of the campaign with 5:18 remaining in the opening period to make the score 2-1 in favor the Windigo. Lucas Jendek and Karson Young assisted on the goal.
Homer and Anderson produced their tallies on the power play late in the final period with 5:49 and 2:35 left, respectively. Homer made the score 6-2 with his 22nd of the season on a marker assisted by Noah Dziver. Anderson's goal was his fourth of the season and was helped by Thomas Manzella and Caleb Kim.
Wisconsin outshot the Wilderness, 39-18.
Nick Erickson suffered the loss in goal, making 33 saves on 39 Wisconsin shots. Earning the win for the Windigo was Lucas Szyszka, who stopped 16 of 18 Minnesota shots.
Luke Baker led the Windigo with two goals. Braydon Beahm, Alexios Georgaklis, Hunter Hayes and Jackson Ernst each added single tallies.
Each team put up two goals on the man-advantage with the Wilderness getting eight chances, while Wisconsin had six.
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