Two goals scored in the final moments of regulation time sent the Minnesota Wilderness to a 5-4 victory over the Janesville Jets Saturday night.
With goaltender Loris Uberti pulled for an extra attacker, Gustavs Ozolins tied the game on a shot through traffic with 1:28 left. That was followed by Ashton Dahms notching the game-winner on a breakaway with 12.4 seconds left.
That capped off a back-and-forth game in which the Wilderness gave up a lead three times before the Jets jumped in front 4-3 late in the 2nd period.
Two goals from Oliver Band helped the Wilderness go up by one goal early in the first and second periods. Band opened the scoring 2:02 into the first when he redirected a shot from Nick Troutwine past Janesville goaltender Jan Kasal. After Ethan Begg evened the score for Janesville later in the opening period, Band put the Wilderness back in front 1:38 into the 2nd period with a wrist shot from the left circle. Those tallies doubled Band’s season goal total to 4.
An Oliver Stümpel goal later in the middle frame gave the Wilderness the game’s first 2-goal lead. Stümpel capitalized on a tick-tac-toe passing play for his ninth marker of the season. It started along the left wall in Jet territory when Logan Nagle delivered a centering pass to Daniel Astopovich, who then relayed the puck with a slight turn of the stick to Stümpel as he was stationed at the right post to finish the play with 11:07 left in the 2nd.
However, Janesville did not let that multi-goal lead stand for long. The Jets ended up tying the game 47 seconds later with goals by Ikki Kogawa and Rhett Kodsi. The Jets then gained their first lead of the game when Trey Fechko found the back of the net with 1:42 remaining in the 2nd .
That was followed by a second period which commenced with Uberti replacing starting netminder Adam Prokop in the Minnesota goal. Uberti then proceeded to stop all nine shots he faced in the final period. For the game, the Wilderness outshot Janesville 16-9 in the third and 43-29 in the game.
Ozolins’ tying goal was his 2nd of the season. Dahms’ goal gives him 17 which moves him into a tie for 2nd among all NAHL scorers. He also now has a league-leading seven game-winners.
Neither team struck on the power play. The Wilderness were scoreless on five opportunities while the Jets (12-10-2) were held off on their four chances.
The first-place Wilderness (16-7-2) go on the road again next weekend with a matchup vs. the Midwest Division’s 2nd place squad—the Wisconsin Windigo. The two-game series in Eagle River, WI, kicks off Dec. 1 at 7:00 p.m.