Wilderness at home this week

The Minnesota Wilderness remain at .500 after a slate of games in the North American Hockey League’s Showcase Tournament in Blaine last week. The Cloquet-based team is now 3-3-1 on the season.

The tourney began Wednesday, Sept. 25 against Northeast. The Wilderness held leads of 2-0 and 3-2 but could not hold on in a 4-3 loss.

Just 34 seconds after Lucas Jendek posted a second-period goal to give Minnesota a 2-0 advantage, the Generals got on the board to make it 2-1. Northeast then scored early in the third to tie the contest at 2. Minnesota bounced back with a power play tally from Nate Murray at the 6:12 mark before the Generals posted two unanswered.

Elmira won a Friday morning thriller 5-4 in overtime in a game that had the Wilderness fall behind four times and come back four times. The Aviators finished it off with a power play goal from Ben Costantino just 32 seconds into overtime.

River Freeman, Zach Homer, Lucas Jendek and Brady Zugec posted single tallies for Minnesota. Luke Margenau added two assists.

Lucas Jendek posted a goal and two assists, while Nick Erickson stopped 23 of 24 shots Saturday night to lead the Minnesota Wilderness to a 4-1 triumph over the U.S. National Team Development Program’s Under 17 squad in the final game of the Showcase tournament.

While the NTDP is not a member of the NAHL, the game result counts in Minnesota’s regular season league record. It was played in front of a capacity crowd at Super Rink 4, the largest of eight hockey arenas at the National Sports Center.

Nate Murray and Caleb Kim contributed with a goal each and assists, while River Freeman capped off the scoring with an empty-net goal.

The Wilderness return to Cloquet this weekend for 7:15 p.m. faceoffs Friday and Saturday against Springfield at Northwoods Credit Union Arena.