The St. Cloud Norsemen broke a 2-2 tie late in the third period and then added two empty-net goals to complete a 5-2 win over the Minnesota Wilderness Friday night.
Andrew Cumming’s power play goal with 5:40 left put the Norsemen ahead and tallies by Peyton Mithmuangneua and Hagen Moe nailed down St. Cloud’s third consecutive victory over the Wilderness this season.
The Norsemen effort in the final frame capped off what had been a seesaw battle. The contest began with St. Cloud securing a 2-0 lead in the opening period with an even-strength goal by Braden Panzer and a power-play marker from Michael Coleman. That was followed by the Wilderness charging back in the 2nd to tie.
Daniel Astopovich began the comeback effort while Minnesota was on the man-advantage. The veteran forward from Birmingham, MI, finished a play that featured some swift puck movement with a shot from bottom of the right circle for his ninth goal of the campaign. Peteris Purmalis and Alessandro Lurati both assisted on the goal at the middle frame’s 4:38 mark.
A furious forechecking effort from Patrick Dunaiski then helped set-up the Wilderness’ 2nd goal. The rookie from Cloquet chased down the puck in the offensive zone and quickly found Lurati just above the right circle who fired a shot that goaltender Max Weilandt was able to stop. However, the rebound went directly to Purmalis in front, who stuffed it in for his 15 th goal of the season.
St. Cloud outshot Minnesota 30-19. Nick Erickson suffered the loss in goal with 25 saves on 28 shots. Weilandt earned the victory turning aside 17 Wilderness attempts.
Both teams were awarded six power play chances with Minnesota converting once, while the Norsemen were successful twice.
That leaves just one game left on the 2023-24 schedule between Minnesota (22-13-4) and St. Cloud (16-12-9). The Wilderness will try to salvage a victory in the fourth game of the season series Saturday night in Cloquet. Puck drop at Northwoods Credit Union Arena is set for 7:15.