Wilderness battle for playoff spot

The second half of the North American Hockey League season has arrived and the Minnesota Wilderness team is fighting for the fourth and final playoff position in an extremely tough Central Division.

The Cloquet-based Wilderness opened the second half by taking two of three games against the second-place Austin Bruins.

"It was a good way to get the second half started," said Wilderness coach Dave Boitz. "We are two points out of third- and fourth place and we need to keep focused on the job ahead."

Bismarck and Minot are tied for third with 37 points and the Wilderness are in fifth with 35 points. Taking four of six possible points over a three-day period against second-place Austin was a good start for the Wilderness on their march up the division ladder.

On Friday, Dec. 28, the Wilderness pumped in six goals in a 6-3 win over the Bruins. Jack Johnson scored twice in the first period for the Wilderness with a Garrett Dahm goal for the Bruins sandwiched in between. The second period was all Wilderness with goals from Ben Ward, Ondrej Trejbal and Aaron Myers as the Wilderness built a 5-1 lead. Trejbal added a power play goal in the final period for his second goal of the game. Trejbal and Johnson both finished with two goals, and former CEC forward Dylan Johnson added two assists.

"It was a good way to come off our 10-day break," Boitz said. "Trejbal had a great three days for us and Dylan Johnson very well could be the player of the month for December."

Ryan Fanti had a nice night in the net for the Wilderness Friday and the two points came at an important time as Minot and Bismarck were splitting a pair of games against each other, allowing the Wilderness to edge up on both teams in the standings.

Saturday night the hometown Wilderness again pounded home six goals on their way to a 6-2 victory over the Bruins as Dylan Johnson and Meyers scored in the first period on the power play, making it 2-0 right out of the gate.

"Our special teams are playing well right now," Boitz said. "Right now we are playing good all around. We are getting solid goaltending, our special teams are playing well and we are getting balanced scoring."

Trejbal and Nate Horn both scored in the first six minutes of the second period building the Wilderness lead to 4-0 before Andrew Willis pulled the Bruins to within 4-1 at 13:16. Wilderness fans got more to cheer about when Jack Suchy scored at 17:51 of the second, giving them a 5-1 lead after two periods.

The third period saw teams split goals with Dylan Johnson picking up an assisted goal at 7:09 and Willis scoring for the Bruins at 11:04, ending the scoring for the night.

Trejbal and Dylan Johnson both had big nights again with Trejbal notching a goal and two assists and Dylan Johnson adding a pair of tallies. Fanti had another solid night in the nets picking up 37 saves and the win, in a game that saw a chippy third period with the two teams combining for eight penalties, including a slough of penalties right as the third period came to a close.

New Year's Eve saw the Bruins come back with a 5-3 win in a game that was tied at 3-3 entering the third period.

"They came out and really pushed against us on Monday," said Boitz. "They played hard and we didn't defend as well as we did in the previous two games. We played hard, but we didn't play smart. It was just a rough night."

Nick Portz scored the only Wilderness goal in the first period as they came out of the opening period down 2-1. Portz tied the game on assists from Dylan Johnson and Nate Horn at 5:02 of the second, but an unassisted Bruins goal by Danta Zapata at 18:44 gave Austin the lead again. Dylan Johnson answered swiftly for the Wilderness by scoring at the 19:30 mark of the second period, making it 3-3 entering the final period.

"There is no one who works harder than Dylan," Boitz said. "He is at practice early, leaves late and that extra work is showing itself. He is a very, very good player for us. I believe he has 14 points in eight games in December."

Ahead, the Wilderness have a chance to help their own cause.

"We have four huge games with Minot coming up," Boitz said. "We play at home on Friday, then at the Heritage Center in Duluth Saturday. Next weekend we play at Minot. That means there will be eight points on the table against a team that is two points ahead of us in the standings."

Boitz said it will be key for the Wilderness to play well and take as many points as possible against one of the two teams ahead of them as they fight for the last two playoff positions.

"We have a lot of games against both Minot and Bismarck, so it is up to us from here on out," Boitz said. "We can't get ahead of ourselves. We have to emphasize playing one shift at a time, one period at a time, and we try and break each game down to five-minute segments. If we do that, we will be fine."