Leads of 3-0 and 4-1 were not enough for the Minnesota Wilderness Thursday night, as the Springfield Jr. Blues battled back to win 5-4 in the opener of a 2-game series.
The Wilderness built an early 3-goal lead when Gustavs Ozolins, Payton Nelson and Beau Janzig found the back of the net over a 4:40 span in the first period.
After Dylan Glinski got the Jr. Blues on the board 4:25 into the 2nd, Peteris Purmalis restored Minnesota’s 3-goal advantage two minutes later.
After that, it was all Springfield.
Logan Opgrand cut the Wilderness lead to 4-2 with 1:13 remaining. Glinski then notched his 2nd of the game on the power play 1:09 into the third to pull Springfield within one, followed by Logan Sutton tying the game at the 4:28 mark.
The Jr. Blues completed the comeback when Logan Ganz scored with 11:36 remaining when the puck was knocked in as the Wilderness net was being dislodged. After reviewing the play via video replay, the officials upheld the call, and Springfield was ahead 5-4.
Goaltender Matt Schoephoerster then shut the door on the Wilderness (28-24-5) and held on to give Springfield (20-29-8) the victory. Schoephoerster finished with 30 saves on 34 shots, as Minnesota outshot the Jr. Blues, 34-27.
The Wilderness used two goaltenders in the loss. Nick Erickson started the game, and played 44:28, allowing four goals on 19 shots. In relief, Adam Prokop suffered the loss stopping 7 of 8 shots over 13:31.
Both teams finished with two power play opportunities, with the Wilderness going scoreless, while Springfield struck once.
The same two teams meet again Friday night in what will be the final regular season home game for Minnesota. Puck drop is set for 7:15.