Twists, turns so far in Wilderness season

The Wilderness have had a rollercoaster ride both on and off the ice this season.

Off the ice, head coach Colton St. Clair decided to step down as coach in early October and then the Wilderness hired Zach Stepan as the head coach for the team based in Cloquet. Stepan was not new to the organization, as he was already coaching the NA3HL Wilderness team based in Eveleth.

“It’s been busy trying to get through the transition of new systems while not having had a full training camp for them to learn those systems,” Stepan said.

On ice, the schedule hasn’t been kind to the Wilderness. They were on a lengthy road trip to Alaska and then returned home, only to hit the road again. During that stretch the Wilderness won the opening game of a three-game set with the Wolverines of Anchorage and then last weekend they dropped a pair of games to the Wisconsin Windigo. Their last two opponents are the top two teams in the NAHL Midwest Division.

“I’m glad we’re going through this tough part of the schedule early in the season,” Stepan said. “This is a young team and they are learning to adjust to the travel schedule and the league.”

The Wilderness started their Alaskan road trip on the last day of October and did not return home until late in the day Nov. 12. Two days later they boarded a bus for the trip to Eagle River, Wisconsin, to take on the Wisconsin Windigo.

“That’s a tough place to play because of the size of the rink,” Stepan said. “We went from playing on an Olympic size sheet of ice to a much smaller rink so it was tough, but our guys battled and didn’t back down.”

Wisconsin won both games by 6-3 and 6-5 scores, but the Wilderness picked up two goals from Nate Murray on Friday night and the team captain added another goal on Saturday night.

“Nate’s been coming along and is finally getting rewarded for playing the game the right way,” Stepan said. “We also got consistent scoring from the entire line up on Saturday.”

Despite giving up 12 goals in two games, the coach is not worried about his goaltending.

“In no way did this have to do with our goaltending,” Stepan said. “They are a big, strong, older team that is perfectly made for their size rink and building. We need to get better defensively in front of our goalies and win the sticks battles.”

The Wilderness have a chance at redemption when they return home to the friendly confines of Northwoods Credit Union Arena Friday and Saturday against the very same Windigo squad they faced last weekend.

“Since I took over as head coach this is the first full week of practice we’ve had,” said Stepan. “I am very optimistic that this group can come back to our rink on a more normal schedule to show what they can do.”

Currently the Wilderness are tied for sixth place in NAHL Midwest Division. Alaska is in first place and Wisconsin sits in second place.

“We are excited to be back home and we’d love to have everyone come out to support us,” Stepan said.

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If you go

The Minnesota Wilderness play the Wisconsin Windigo at home this weekend, with games starting at 7:15 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Northwoods Credit Union Arena. It’s the annual Military Appreciation weekend with the Wilderness wearing special military-style jerseys.