Six different players lit the lamp Saturday night to help the Minnesota Wilderness to a 6-1 victory over the Springfield Jr. Blues and reach the 40-win mark on the 2025-26 regular season.
Forty wins breaks the previous season high of 39 set during the club’s Robertson Cup championship season of 2014-15.
The victory also allowed Minnesota to end its season at Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Cloquet on a historic note. Due to construction of a new arena ice plant set to begin in April, the Wilderness will be playing all home NAHL Robertson Cup playoff games at the Aspirus St. Luke’s Sports and Event Center in Proctor.
At the conclusion of Saturday’s contest, all Wilderness players skated the circumference of the rink with sticks raised to salute the Cloquet crowd who stood by them all season.
After having clinched the Midwest Division’s regular season two weeks ago, Minnesota will be the division’s top seed once the post-season begins. While no official playoff schedule has been released, the opening playoff games will be between April 16-19.
Four regular season games remain on the 25-26 schedule. Minnesota will close the campaign with four contests in Janesville, WI, to take on the Janesville Jets. The first two games will be this Friday and Saturday (April 3-4).
Saturday’s win allowed Minnesota to split the weekend series vs. the Jr. Blues, who took down the Wilderness in the Friday opener, 5-1.
Friday: Springfield 5, Wilderness 1
Matt Hauser’s first goal of the season was Friday night’s lone Minnesota highlight. The Wilderness outshot the Jr. Blues, 33-26, and were stymied by strong netminding from Springfield veteran Amir Valiullin, who made 32 saves.
Hauser’s tally resulted from a feed from Caleb Kim with 12:41 left in the 2nd period as the Wilderness were on a power play.
A goal from Dennis Emisibe early in the opening frame kicked off the night for the Jr. Blues, who then followed with a short-handed marker from Niko Laus toward the end of the period.
The Wilderness proceeded to keep it close until the latter stages of the third period, where the Jr. Blues closed out the contest with three unanswered. Lukas Wallinheimo notched a power play goal with 6:33 left to make it 3-1, and Logan Sutton and Brady Turner followed with empty-net tallies to close out the scoring.
Ryan Gerlich suffered the loss in net for Minnesota making 21 saves on 24 shots. The defeat snapped a franchise record of 14 straight games where the team notched at least a point with Gerlich in net. It was the veteran netminder’s first regulation loss since Nov. 8 and first loss of any kind at home since Oct. 25.
Saturday: Wilderness 6, Springfield 1
The Wilderness wasted little time in taking control of Saturday’s closer by taking the first lead before the game’s first whistle.
Avery Anderson made it 1-0 when he re-directed Matt Hauser’s shot past Springfield goaltender Amir Valiullin 3:36 into the opening period. Kevin Lysohir also assisted on the marker which was Anderson’s 14 th of the season.
Lysohir and Anderson would connect again with five minutes left in the period to make it 2-0.
After Olle Karlsson carried the puck into the Springfield zone on the left side, he fed it to Lysohir in the left circle. Lysohir then sent a one-handed pass to Anderson in front of the net who then sent it right back to Lysohir as he skated across the top of the crease who slipped the puck just between the goaltender and the right post for his 11th goal of his rookie season.
After James Marshall put the Jr. Blues on the board 2:43 into the 2nd period, Minnesota bounced back quickly to regain a 2-goal advantage.
Caleb Kim was the finisher of a scoring play started by Anthony Capello for Kim’s 17th of the campaign. Capello fed the puck to Theo Kiss as he was about to enter the offensive zone which also created a 2-on-1 with Kim on the left side. Kiss then sent it to Kim at the bottom of the left circle who one-timed a shot that sailed over the goaltender’s left shoulder and into the back of the net at the middle period’s 5:59 mark.
The Wilderness added two more before the 2nd period ended.
Robinson Djian notched his 13th of the season moments after River Freeman won a face-off in the face-off circle to the right of the Springfield goal. On the draw, Freeman sent the puck to the left boards which Djian retrieved. Djian then whipped the puck toward the net which sailed past Valiullin to make it 4-1 with 3:46 left.
Freeman then helped set up the goal to make it 5-1 just 1:07 later. The 2nd year forward from Hermantown stiff-armed Springfield fore-checker Sarunas Baltrunas twice to maintain control of the puck in the offensive zone. Then, from the right-wing boards, Freeman zipped a pass to Ryan DeAngelis in the slot who found the back of the net with 2:39 left. Andrei Gudin also helped on the goal which was DeAngelis’ 2nd of the season.
Minnesota added a power play goal in the third period to cap off the scoring. Hauser earned his second assist on the night on a scoring play completed by Talan Blanck. After receiving a pass from Blanck, Hauser skated from the high slot to the bottom of the left circle and then slipped the puck across the front of the crease to the bottom of the right circle to Blanck who tossed it into the net for his 25th marker of the season with 13:41 left in the game.
Noah Dziver also assisted on Blanck’s tally, giving him 42 helpers on the year. That leaves him just two assists shy of the franchise single season record of 44 set in 2021-22 set by Niko Rexine.
Minnesota ended the game 1-for-2 on the power play, while Springfield went 0-for-4.
The Wilderness outshot the Jr. Blues 27-26. Valdemar Andersen finished with 25 saves to earn his 23 rd win this season and snapped a 3-game home losing streak.
Nicolas Rempel relieved Valiullin in the Springfield net in the third period and finished with six saves on seven shots. Valiullin made 15 saves on 20 shots over the first 40 minutes.