The Anchorage Wolverines scored in all phases of the game and received some solid goaltending in a 5-1 win over the Minnesota Wilderness Saturday night.
Duluth native Cole Christian led the Wolverines with three points, posting one goal and two assists, while rookie goaltender Jozef Zilinec held off the Wilderness on 31 of 32 shots to earn a victory in his first Junior A game.
Oliver Stümpel scored the lone Wilderness goal. Starting netminder Loris Uberti took the loss, allowing four goals on 20 shots over 50:38. The native of Martigney, Switzerland, was pulled after the Wolverines made it 4-0; backup Tommy O’Donnell finished the game stopping two of three shots over the game’s final 9:22.
Oliver Salo opened the scoring for the Wolverines just 51 seconds after the opening puck drop when he re-directed a shot from Will Shepard past Uberti. Christian also assisted on the goal, which turned out to be the only first period tally.
Anchorage made it 2-0 on another early period goal—this time 1:47 into the middle frame. Christian set up the play with some fancy stickhandling across the high slot before feeding the puck to Taisetsu Ushio in the right circle. Ushio then fired the puck into the net on Uberti’s stick side, with Wilson Dahlheimer also registering an assist.
The Wilderness had several opportunities throughout the game, including seven power play chances. Three of those man-advantage situations came consecutively in the second period. Anchorage ended up using one of those to its advantage to expand its lead. Fedya Nikolayenia scored on a short-handed breakaway to make it 3-0 with 8:50 left in the frame.
The Wolverines would add another special teams tally when Dahlheimer notched a power play marker with 9:22 left in the third period to make it 4-0.
Minnesota finally got on the board with 5:56 remaining in regulation time. An outlet pass from Adam Johnson helped spring Stümpel loose at center ice, and the Torrance, CA, native then converted on a breakaway to make it 4-1.
Christian, who skated in two games with the Wilderness as an affiliate player in the 2021-22 season, added one more for Anchorage to make it 5-1 with 3:08 left in the final period.
Minnesota finished the game 0-for-7 on the power play, while Anchorage went one-for-5.
The Wilderness outshot the Wolverines, 32-23.
Minnesota next moves on to compete in the NAHL Showcase, where all NAHL teams will play four games over four days beginning Sept. 13. The Wilderness will open the tournament in Blaine, MN, against the New Jersey Titans.