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
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 at Northwoods Credit Union Arena. The Wilderness followed that up by losing a pair of home games to the Wisconsin Windigo, 4-3 in a shootout Saturday and 5-2 on Feb. 3. It equaled a 3-point weekend for the Wilderness, enough to put the team alone atop the standings.
The Wilderness coughed up three-goal leads in the eventual win against Fairbanks and shootout loss to Wisconsin — the hottest team in the division, having won eight of its last 10 games, and standing alone in third place with 48 points.
In the shootout loss, Gunnar Thoreson assisted on a goal, giving him 100 career points with the Wilderness.
In a battle of the division’s top teams Feb. 2, Wilderness goalie Isak Posch won for the fourth time in five games, with 22 saves.
Thoreson and Kevin Marx Norén led the way for the Wilderness offensively — each registering one goal and two assists.
Norén is up to a team-high 21 goals on the season, and his 42 total points are tied for 10th-most in the league.
Minnesota will now have almost two weeks to rest, as the team will be idle next weekend and return to play Feb. 17-18 for another series against the Windigo (23-15-2) — this time in Eagle River, Wisconsin.
For five Wilderness players, the break didn’t start until they played in the league’s Top Prospects Tournament early this week at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex outside Pittsburgh. Forwards Reid Daavettila, Cole Gordon and Norén were joined by defensemen Michael Quinn and Severi Sulonen.
