Another sweep for Wilderness

The Minnesota Wilderness closed out the first half of the season playing its best hockey of the campaign, completing a two-game sweep of the Kenai River Brown Bears and stretching its winning streak to a season-high five games.

The Wilderness (14-13-3) also moved back above .500 after their 7-4 and 6-1 victories Dec. 13 and Saturday over Kenai River (11-15-3) in Cloquet. Minnesota is now idle until Jan. 3-4 at home against Anchorage.

A balanced offensive attack led the Wilderness to victory Dec. 13.

Seven players scored goals for Minnesota. Newcomer Tyler Webb, who was recently called up from the NA3HL Minnesota Wilderness in Eveleth, broke a scoreless tie 9 minutes, 20 seconds into the first period with a goal. The Wilderness followed that with tallies from Zach Homer, Drew Beasley and Brady Zugec in the second period, before Noah Dziver, Ben Roulette and Zach Howard finished off the scoring in the third.

The Brown Bears were led by three goals from Jack Clarke and a goal from Gavin Jensen.

While the Wilderness never trailed in the game, Kenai River made things interesting in the second and third periods.

After Minnesota built a 3-0 lead in the early stages of the second, the Brown Bears scored twice to make it 3-2.

The Wilderness fought back with Zugec notching a power play marker to rebuild the lead to two.

Kenai then started strong in the third period with Clark’s second goal of the game 2:20 into the frame to make it 4-3, but this time Minnesota’s response was even quicker, as Dziver fired in what ended up being the game winner just 31 seconds later.

Dziver then posted two goals and added one assist for a three-point night in a 6-1 win Saturday.

Nick Erickson had another strong contest, making 38 saves, as Kenai again outshot Minnesota, 39-37. That shot count includes an 18-7 advantage in the third period, where Erickson kept the Brown Bears scoreless.

Zach Homer also registered a three-point game, with a goal and two assists. Others with multiple points were Nate Murray with one goal and one assist while Owen Smith posted two helpers. Single goals went to Lucas Jendek and Zach Howard — with Howard posting empty-net goals in both games of the series.

Joey Sylvester, Luke Margenau and Tyler Webb all recorded single assists.

Minnesota scored in all phases of the game: short-handed, power play, 4-on-4, and 5-on-5, along with the empty net.

The Wilderness enter the break in fourth place in the North American Hockey League’s eight-team Midwest Division. With 31 points, the Wilderness trails first-place Wisconsin Windigo (43), Anchorage Wolverines (39) and the Fairbanks Ice Dogs (36).