Wilderness choose seasoned captains, tally split

The Minnesota Wilderness, junior hockey inhabitants of Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Cloquet, named its captains this week for the remainder of the 2022-23 season.

Cole Gordon and Gunnar Thoreson were announced to serve as co-captains, a team news release said this week.

Both are in their third season with the Wilderness and spent the 2021-22 season as alternate captains.

Gordon, of Windsor, Colorado, is a 19-year-old forward who has played 96 regular season games over his career with the Wilderness, plus nine playoff games. He's scored seven goals and tends to accumulate penalty minutes for his rugged play.

Thoreson, a 20-year-old forward from Andover, Minnesota, has skated in 128 games with Minnesota, tallying 74 points to rank in the top 10 for Wilderness career statistics.

The two captains were selected on a teamwide player vote.

In regular-season action last weekend, Isak Posch made 27 saves and Eddie Shepler scored twice and added an assist in leading the Wilderness to a 4-0 victory over the Wisconsin Windigo at home Friday. But the Wilderness fell Saturday to Wisconsin, 3-2, in overtime.

Tyler Grahme scored just 47 seconds after the OT puck drop on a wrist shot that beat Minnesota netminder Konrad Kausch on his glove side. The Wilderness finished the weekend 6-3-2 on the young season.

The OT loss snapped Minnesota's five-game winning streak, but extended its streak of games with a point to eight.

After a break this weekend, Minnesota will return to the ice for another home series Oct. 21-22. The Wilderness will play host to Springfield for a pair of games starting at 7:15 p.m. both nights.