A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
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Relying on a red-hot scorer, the Minnesota Wilderness made team history last weekend, sweeping a three-game series at home for the first time. Playing inside Northwoods Credit Union Arena, the Wilderness topped Anchorage Wolverines, 4-3, 2-1, and 3-2 from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, respectively. Kevin Marx Noreen scored his second hat trick of the season in Sunday’s game, giving him six goals in seven games since being traded to the team. Joe Cesario scored his second overtime game-winner in as many games Friday. The Wilderness typically play t...
Trades are frequent in junior hockey, and to determine if one works can take weeks or months. But for the Minnesota Wilderness last weekend, the return was instant. The team went 2-1 after acquiring forwards Kevin Marx Noren and Noah Griswold on Thursday, including a record-breaking performance from Noren in his first game with the team. After scoring only five goals in losing its opening three games, the team went on to score 11 while participating in the four-day, 29-team conference showcase at the National Sports Center in Blaine,...
The Minnesota Wilderness announced Monday that Brett Skinner had been promoted to head coach. In a corresponding move, David Boitz announced he was stepping down from head coaching to focus solely on being the team’s general manager. Skinner had arrived in August as an associate head coach, acquitting himself immediately on his way to becoming the fifth head coach in the franchise’s North American Hockey League history. Skinner — a Brandon, Manitoba native — quickly convinced his new boss he could handle the role of head coach. “Brett...
Former Minnesota Wilderness junior hockey coach Brendan Phelps won’t face charges after two men in an online video alleged that Phelps had traveled to Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, for an intimate encounter with someone he believed was a 16-year-old male. Instead, when Phelps arrived, he found the men — private citizens, not police — with video cameras, one who claimed he had posed as the boy online. The 18-minute video was posted to YouTube in July by a group called Midwest Predator Catchers. While...
The hockey journey of former Lumberjack Jamie Langenbrunner continued this past week when it was announced he is the new assistant general manager of the Boston Bruins. Langenbrunner starred for the Cloquet hockey team in the early 1990s and went on to an 18-year professional career. He played for the Dallas Stars, the New Jersey Devils and the St. Louis Blues. During his professional career, Langenbrunner won the Stanley Cup twice, and also played for the U.S. Olympic team twice, and was team...
The final piece of the Minnesota Wilderness coaching staff puzzle is in place with the hiring of Brett Skinner as associate head coach. Skinner is a Brandon, Manitoba, native who has been the assistant coach of the Sioux Falls Stampede of the USHL for the last five seasons. Prior to his coaching career, Skinner played 12 seasons of professional hockey, including 11 games in the NHL with the New York Islanders in 2008-09. He also had a very decorated collegiate career, winning two national championships over three seasons with the University of...
The Minnesota Wilderness have added former Bemidji State Beaver Kyle Brodie to its coaching staff. A native of Northglenn, Colorado, Brodie comes to Cloquet after spending the last six seasons working with AAA programs in Wenatchee, Washington. Brodie’s playing career ended in 2015-16, as he concluded with 51 games as a defenseman with the Columbus Cottonmouths. Brodie’s college career included two seasons with Bemidji State, where he earned NCAA All-Academic team honors both seasons. Brodie then transferred to University of Wis...
The Minnesota Wilderness junior hockey team held its main training camp last week. Roughly 135 players were expected to attend the three-day event, which concluded Thursday with an all-star game at Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Cloquet. According to a Wilderness news release, coaches said they would use the all-star game to determine who will be invited to the season-opening training camp later this summer. All NAHL teams must have rosters reduced to 25 players by Sept. 1. The team is...
A coach for the Minnesota Wilderness was fired this week after a disturbing video was posted to YouTube. The video showed Brendan Phelps, age 31, responding to accusations that he had driven to a park in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, to allegedly rendezvous with someone he believed to be a 16-year-old boy, after “meeting” on Grindr, an LGBTQ dating app. Instead he found at least two men — private citizens, not police — with video cameras, one who claimed he had posed as the underage boy online. The 18-minute video was posted by a group called Midwest...
One of the top scorers in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League was the top pick for the Minnesota Wilderness in the June 15 NAHL draft. The Wilderness selected Elliot Dutil from the Notre Dame Hounds as the 30th overall pick in the draft. Dutil, a native of Montreal, had an impressive rookie season, piling up 37 goals, 30 assists and 67 points in 58 games for the Hounds. His totals were good enough for second in the SJHL in goals and fourth in the league in points. The Wilderness selections also included former Grand Rapids High School...
A penalty-filled first period was too much for the Minnesota Wilderness to overcome in Friday night's home 5-1 playoff loss to the Anchorage Wolverines. The loss eliminated the Wilderness from the North American Hockey League playoffs as the Wolverines took the series three games to one. "We got off to a rough start in the opening period," said Wilderness head coach Dave Boitz. "We started out down 2-0 and had three straight first-period penalties, which was just too big a hole for us to dig...
The road to the Robertson Cup for the Minnesota Wilderness has been bumpy. A week ago the Wilderness fought out of a two-game deficit to eventually eliminate Fairbanks, setting up a second series with another Alaskan team, the Anchorage Wolverines. That meant another trip to Alaska that resulted in the Wilderness coming home Monday down two games to one in the best-of-five series. In Friday’s 4-1 loss to the Wolverines, the Wilderness opened with a strong first period in which they outshot t...
The Minnesota Wilderness returned home last week a wounded animal. The Cloquet junior hockey team had dropped back-to-back road playoff games in Alaska to the Fairbanks Ice Dogs. Any hopes of moving on in the NAHL playoffs rode on the Wilderness winning three straight games in Cloquet on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. And that is exactly what they did, capping things off with an impressive 5-1 win on Sunday evening in front of a large crowd that seemingly willed the team to victory. "The...
If the Minnesota Wilderness are going to move on in their league playoffs, they will need to string together three straight wins pronto. In Alaska last Friday and Saturday, the Wilderness dropped the first two games of their five-game series with the Fairbanks Ice Dogs by scores of 3-2 and 7-1. They will now try to dig out of that hole with wins at Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Cloquet Friday and Saturday. If they manage to tie the series, there would be a third game on Sunday. In Friday's ov...
A common phrase in sports is “Good play creates good bounces”. The Minnesota Wilderness took advantage of that philosophy Friday night with its first two goals off lucky bounces, and carried that momentum for a 4-1 victory over the Fairbanks Ice Dogs in Game 3 of their best-of-five Midwest Division semi-final series. The Wilderness began the scoring in the first period doing something they have had trouble doing through most of this playoff series—killing penalties. Fairbanks came into the game 4-for-8 on the power play, and on their first...
It took the 60th and final game of the season at home for the Minnesota Wilderness to clinch a playoff berth in the North American Hockey League playoffs Saturday. After dropping a 7-2 decision on the road to the Chippewa Steel on Friday night, the Wilderness were in a must-win situation on Saturday at home. The Wilderness needed overtime, but eventually found a way to win 2-1 and finish as the fourth and final playoff team in the Midwest Division. "Going into the weekend, if we had won both...
A few miles west of Cloquet, in the heart of the Fond du Lac Reservation, sits the Cloquet Forestry Center. Owned by the University of Minnesota, the woodland site has been the primary research and education forest for the university since 1909. It is the oldest experimental forest under continuous operation by a university in the United States, according to Al Alm, professor emeritus and former CFC director. That could change in the not so distant future, as university officials have been...
The Minnesota Wilderness has enjoyed a huge second-half resurgence this season and are fighting for a top playoff spot in the North American Hockey League. What most local fans of the Cloquet-based team do not know is the significant impact the team has made in the upper echelons of college hockey and even the professional hockey ranks. Just this past month, 14 former Wilderness players played in the NCAA Division I hockey tournament, with six on the roster for University of Minnesota Duluth alo...
On Tuesday, Cloquet graduate Koby Bender finally reached the end of a long hockey road when he signed a professional contract with the Bridgeport Islanders of the American Hockey League after wrapping up his career at the University of Minnesota Duluth. "It's hard to believe that my college career is over, and it's hard to believe that I signed a professional contract," Bender said. "I am very excited about what's to come and will continue to work hard to get better." Bender's life since high...
Hopes the Minnesota Wilderness will ensure a chance to play in the postseason will have to wait one more week, as they fell Saturday to the Janesville Jets, 6-3. The Jets scored twice in the first period and built a 5-1 lead before the midway point of the game. Two late Minnesota goals made things interesting in the final few minutes, but the Jets ultimately hung on for the victory, which kept their own playoff aspirations alive. The win gave Janesville 67 points and moved them back within three points of the Wilderness, who sit in third in...
The Minnesota Wilderness won't know their postseason fate until the last game of the season after falling to the Chippewa Steel 7-2 Friday night in Wisconsin. It’s the second loss in as many tries for the Wilderness (34-23-2) when they have been in position to nail down a spot in this season’s NAHL Robertson Cup playoffs. Seven different goal scorers connected for Chippewa (25-31-3). Kade Neilson, Brady Yakesh and Jackson Bisson built a 3-0 lead with tallies in the opening frame, as the Steel dominated in shots on goal 15-6. It appeared Minneso...
Ice skaters of all ages are invited to skate for free with an Easter bunny from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 16 at Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Cloquet. Minnesota Wilderness hockey players will be skating as well and there will be music, prizes, a raffle, cookies, treat bags and take-and-make crafts. The Cloquet track and field team will serve a pancake breakfast 8-11 a.m at Carmen’s Restaurant. Breakfast is $5 and free for those age 4 and under. The event is coordinated by the City of Cloquet and Cloquet Community E...
A second period of wild swings in action culminated in two Minnesota Wilderness power play goals that propelled them to a 4-2 victory over the Springfield Jr. Blues April 1 to complete a sweep of the two-game series. Niko Rexine scored twice and Will Persson added the winning goal and an assist in leading the Wilderness to a 5-2 victory Thursday night. The wins kept the Wilderness in third place through the weekend in a chaotic NAHL Midwest Division. The Wilderness have a 8-1-1 record in their last 10 games. They’re now nipping at s...
Carlton's Abrianna Schmidt sings the national anthem Saturday night with the Cloquet Combined Honor Guard in attendance for the Minnesota Wilderness game and its Military Appreciation Weekend ceremonies....
Niko Rexine scored twice and Will Persson added a goal and an assist in leading the Minnesota Wilderness to a 5-2 victory over the Springfield Jr. Blues Thursday night, March 31. A tight one-goal game going into the 3rd period opened up when Persson scored what resulted in the game-winner 3:06 into the frame. After getting a pass from Max Neill, the veteran from Bjorklinge, Sweden, sprung through on a break along the left wing wall, and fired a shot that sailed over the glove of Springfield...
