Wilderness get a Wisconsin split

The Minnesota Wilderness and Wisconsin Windigo each earned regulation wins in their Thursday/Friday series last week in Eagle River.

The Wilderness (17-14-3) kicked off the series with a 5-3 win on Thursday, while the Windigo (23-9-3) bounced back Friday with a 4-0 victory.

Minnesota stretched its season-high winning streak Thursday to eight games with a balanced offensive attack and a strong performance in goal from Valdemar Andersen.

Andersen finished the contest with 39 saves on 42 shots in his first start since Nov. 29, and first start after spending all of December with the Denmark National Junior Team at the World Junior Tournament.

The Wilderness never trailed and had offensive contributions from five players. Jakeb Lynch opened the scoring on the power play 9:15 into the first period with his 12th of the season.

However, that lead evaporated when Logan Nickolaus answered for Wisconsin with four minutes left in the opening frame.

Minnesota then took command of the game with three consecutive tallies in the second period to take a 4-1 lead. Frantisek Netusil was the first to strike with his team-leading 19th goal of the season at 1:40, Angel Lovecchio followed with his second of the campaign 18 seconds later. Noah Dziver’s ninth of the season gave the Wilderness a 3-goal lead with 4:56 remaining.

Once the middle frame was over, the Windigo would be back within striking distance of tying the game. The Windigo scored twice over the second period’s final 3:55 with goals from Declan Burns and the second of the night from Nickolaus.

The Wilderness held strong in the third, adding one more goal from Zach Homer, as he deposited his 15th of the season at the 3:32 mark.

The streak was snapped Friday, thanks to a solid performance from Windigo goalie Lucas Szyska, who turned aside 25 Wilderness shots and saw his team score single goals in the first and second periods and two in the third to seal the shutout win.

This weekend, the Wilderness will play two games against the Chippewa Steel in a home/home series beginning Friday, Jan. 17 in Chippewa Falls. The Saturday game will be in Cloquet with puck drop at Northwoods Credit Union Arena set for 7:15 p.m.