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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When Justin Harriman went to check on the hockey arena over Memorial Day weekend, he knew immediately something wasn't quite right. "I went in and checked on things and found an issue with the ice plant," said Harriman, the facilities manager and association director for the Cloquet Amateur Hockey Association, which operates both the Northwoods Credit Union Arena and the older Pine Valley Arena next door. He got on the phone to Jay Koenig from Gartner Refrigeration. "After they were able to get...
The Minnesota Wilderness drafted 13 players and added another through a trade in the 2023 NAHL Draft held last week. The new additions include one goaltender, seven forwards and six defensemen. Eleven of those acquired hail from the USA, while the team also brought in one each from Switzerland, Latvia, and Canada. Goaltender Loris Uberti from Martigny, Switzerland, became the Wilderness’ first pick when he was selected 14th overall in the first round. The Wilderness acquired that pick from Anchorage due to a trade completed last February. At ju...
It didn't take long for the Minnesota Wilderness to fill its coaching vacancy. The Cloquet-based North American Hockey League franchise announced Colten St. Clair as the sixth head coach in team history in a news release late last week. His hiring comes just one week after Brett Skinner departed to lead the coaching staff of the Fargo Force of the United States Hockey League. St. Clair, 30, has spent the last two seasons as associate head coach of the USHL's Sioux City Musketeers. In his first s...
Brett Skinner is headed back to the league where he began his coaching career. After leading the Minnesota Wilderness to a Midwest Division playoff championship in his first season as a head coach, Skinner has accepted the same position with the Fargo Force of the United States Hockey League, a Wilderness news release said. In his lone season behind the Wilderness bench, Skinner finished with a 35-18-7 regular season record. He then led the squad on a playoff run that extended to the Robertson Cup championship, where it fell to the eventual lea...
The road to the Robertson Cup ended abruptly for the Minnesota Wilderness last weekend, coming with a two-game sweep to the Oklahoma Warriors. The series started promisingly for Minnesota, which took a 2-0 lead into the third period of Game 1 on Friday at Fogerty Arena in Blaine, Minnesota. But Oklahoma was the North American Hockey League’s top scoring team in the regular season and fought back accordingly, winning 4-2, before seizing a 3-1 series-clinching win on Saturday. The Cloquet-based M...
The Minnesota Wilderness are two big steps away from their first North American Hockey League championship since the 2015-16 season. But they may need to summit those steps without their best player. Kevin Marx Norén's status is unknown for the next round of the playoffs beginning Friday after he was injured during a high-speed collision on the ice in the team's most recent game. "We don't know yet - it's TBD," Wilderness coach Brett Skinner said Tuesday. "He lost some teeth, so he had to go...
Winning on the road is a key to success in any playoff series, and the Minnesota Wilderness managed that last weekend during their best-of-five Midwest Division finals. The Wilderness split with the top-seeded Wisconsin Windigo, winning 1-0 on May 5 before falling 3-2 in overtime the next night in Eagle River, Wisconsin. The Wilderness' quest to advance in the North American Hockey League's Robertson Cup playoffs continues with games 3 and 4, scheduled for 7:15 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Northw...
An unlikely goal-scorer lifted the Minnesota Wilderness to a playoff sweep last weekend, closing out the Kenai River Brown Bears in Soldotna, Alaska, with a 2-1 overtime win in Game 3 of their opening-round playoff series. Michael Quinn’s goal 51 seconds into overtime catapulted the Wilderness into a best-of-five Midwest Division final against the regular season champion Wisconsin Windigo starting this week. “The puck kind of got locked up on the draw, kind of squirted out, and (I) just got to the puck, made a move, and just kind of bla...
Leading their best-of-five playoff series 2-0 following wins last weekend, the Minnesota Wilderness flew to Alaska this week in their attempt to close out the Kenai River Brown Bears and advance to the Midwest Division finals. "The next game in front of you is the most important game of the year," coach Brett Skinner said of what he's telling the team. "That's the same mentality we've had for a while now." A two-seed in the North American Hockey League's 16-team Robertson Cup playoffs, the Wilde...
Kevin Marx Norén scored two third-period goals Saturday, April 15 to send the Minnesota Wilderness soaring into the Robertson Cup playoffs following a sweep in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Norén scored three times over the weekend, leading Minnesota to 2-1 and 6-3 wins over the Chippewa Steel. For his scoring exploits, Norén was named the Midwest Division’s Bauer Star of the Week earlier this week by the North American Hockey League. He also became the team’s all-time leading single-season goal scorer, with 33 goals. The 20-year-old forwar...
The Minnesota Wilderness tuned up for the upcoming Robertson Cup playoffs by exorcizing a demon last week. Following eight straight losses to Midwest Division regular season champion Wisconsin Windigo, including a 1-0 loss April 6 in Cloquet, the Wilderness pulled out a 3-2 win on April 7. The team scored a goal in each period, from Kevin Marx Norén, Oliver Stümpel and Sawyer Scholl. Isak Posch tied the team record for wins by a goalie, getting 25 saves for his 24th victory of the season. P...
With a split in Janesville, Wisconsin last weekend, the Minnesota Wilderness secured a playoff berth for the eighth time in its 10 seasons in the North American Hockey League. The Wilderness lost to the Jets, 6-1, on Friday, March 31, before winning, 3-0, on Saturday to secure a top-four position in the Midwest Division and a spot in the upcoming 16-team Robertson Cup playoffs. One day after getting pulled in the first period for allowing three goals in Janesville’s first eight shots, Minnesota goalie Isak Posch, of Umeå, Sweden, collected hi...
The Minnesota Wilderness closed in on a playoff berth last weekend, sweeping Janesville by scores of 3-1 and 1-0 in Cloquet. The wins put Minnesota's magic number at 3 to clinch a berth in the Robertson Cup playoff. The top four teams from each of the four divisions in the North American Hockey League advance to chase the cup. With 69 points, the Wilderness (31-16-7) sit alone in second place in the Midwest Division with six games remaining. With 71 points, the division-leading Wisconsin...
The Minnesota Wilderness split a weekend series against the Chippewa Steel, falling 2-1 Friday, March 17, before turning the tables in a 2-1 shootout win Saturday, March 18. The Wilderness carried 1-0 leads into the third period of both games, against the team from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. The split allowed the red hot Wisconsin Windigo to build on its now 4-point division lead over Minnesota. Kevin Marx Norén scored the shootout goal that clinched Minnesota's win Saturday. The forward from...
For the first time in franchise history last weekend, the Minnesota Wilderness finished an Alaska road swing undefeated, with 6-2 and 4-2 wins over the Anchorage Wolverines on March 10 and 11. Sawyer Scholl led the way, scoring four goals and adding an assist in the two games. The Wilderness finished 4-0 in two weeks of play in Alaska, beating Anchorage and the Kenai River Brown Bears twice each to extend Minnesota’s winning streak to five games. Scholl, 21, is a 6-foot-2, 190-pound native of Green Bay, Wisconsin. He was awarded North A...
Beginning a two-week swing through Alaska, the Minnesota Wilderness swept the Kenai River Brown Bears last weekend by twin scores of 4-1. With the wins, Minnesota climbed into second place in its division and kept pace with the red-hot Wisconsin Windigo. The Wilderness got Bo Cosman’s first two goals for the team on Saturday, March 4. In Friday’s game, the Wilderness scored three goals in the span of 2 minutes, 44 seconds. Brian Lonergan, Michael Quinn and Reid Daavettila scored the goals in quick succession, putting the game away 10 min...
The Minnesota Wilderness ended a five-game losing streak on Saturday, getting a pair of goals from Sawyer Scholl to beat the Springfield Jr. Blues 4-1 at Cloquet’s Northwoods Credit Union Arena. The win gave the Wilderness a split in the weekend series, having lost 5-3 to the visitors from Illinois on Feb. 24. Minnesota now travels to Alaska for the next two weekends, with four games beginning March 3. Against Springfield on Saturday, Scholl opened the scoring midway through the second period. He intercepted an errant backhand pass and swooped...
Fresh off a series of roster moves aimed at bolstering the team for its stretch run, the Minnesota Wilderness promptly laid an egg last weekend in Eagle River, Wisconsin. The team dropped a pair of games to the Wisconsin Windigo, allowing the home team to leapfrog Minnesota atop the Midwest Division of the North American Hockey League. Minnesota (23-14-7) is tied with Fairbanks (24-17-5) at 53 points in second place in the division. Wisconsin (26-15-3) now leads with 55 points. The Wilderness failed to protect a three-goal lead Saturday,...
Division-leading Minnesota Wilderness made a number of transactions within the last week ahead of the North American Hockey League's roster freeze. In the process, the team parted ways with Joe Cesario and Ren Morque, two players who'd been instrumental in helping Minnesota to the top of the Midwest Division. Five new players were acquired to help bolster a lineup ahead of the regular season's final stretch, a team news release said. New to the team are: • Bo Cosman, a 21-year-old forward f...
A topsy-turvy three-game weekend left the Minnesota Wilderness falling up, into sole possession of first place, despite ending on a two-game losing streak. The Wilderness surrendered three-goal leads in two of the games, saw one of the team’s veterans reach a 100-point milestone, and became the first team in the Midwest Division of the North American Hockey League to surpass the 50-point plateau. At 23-13-6, the Wilderness lead the division with 52 points, followed by the Fairbanks Ice Dogs with 50. Minnesota beat Fairbanks, 5-4, on Feb. 2 a...
It's complicated. That's the phrase that often comes to mind when delving into exactly how acres within the Fond du Lac reservation came under non-Native control, paving the way for today's Cloquet Forestry Center. It is also quite simple. A series of laws passed in the late 1800s kick-started a land rush on reservation lands across the country. They allowed "allotments" for Native residents with promises of eventual ownership of land within reservations. It was an attempt to assimilate Native...
By earning three points last weekend, the Minnesota Wilderness reclaimed a share of first place in the Midwest Division of the North American Hockey League. With 49 points each, the Wilderness are tied atop the standings with the Fairbanks (Alaska) Ice Dogs. The division-leading teams were scheduled to play one another Thursday in Cloquet after this edition of the newspaper went to press. The Wilderness will then host a pair at Northwoods Credit Union Arena against the resurgent Wisconsin Windigo on Friday and Saturday. The team from Eagle...
In a forest several miles north of Grand Rapids, John Pastor places his hands on the trunk of a giant white pine, cranes back his neck and gazes up into its crown, a hundred feet above. “For me, I just get a feeling in my brain and my heart and my soul,” said Pastor, a retired University of Minnesota Duluth ecologist. “Good job, old boy. You survived all of this and you’re still here. Great job.” The tree is likely about 150 years old. That’s not even middle age for an Eastern White Pine. It wa... 
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The top scorer for the Minnesota Wilderness delivered his most dramatic goal of the season on Friday. Kevin Marx Norén scored as time expired in regulation, giving the Wilderness a 4-3 win en route to a home-and-home series sweep last weekend against the Chippewa Steel. A 20-year-old from Knivsta, Sweden, Norén scored twice in Friday’s game in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, then added a goal and an assist in Saturday’s 2-1 win at Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Cloquet. Norén has seven points in his last three games, and leads the team with 1...
The Minnesota Wilderness opened the door to adversity when they entered the 2023 calendar year. The team got swept in Eagle River, Wisconsin, last weekend, managing only three goals, coughing up seven and finding themselves spinning further away from the top spot in the North American Hockey League’s Midwest Division. The Wilderness dropped a pair to the Wisconsin Windigo, losing 3-0 and 4-3, on Jan. 13-14. Minnesota is 4-4-2 in its last 10 games, a stark contrast to the club’s surging November and December that saw the team reach and hold firs...
