Five months after the Minnesota Wilderness and Springfield Jr. Blues first met to launch the 2025-26 season, the two squads finally meet again this weekend for their second scheduled 2-game series. The Wilderness are in Springfield, IL, for games Friday and Saturday (Feb. 27-28) at the Nelson Center against the Jr. Blues.
These contests mark the first of six Minnesota and Springfield will play before the end of the 25-26 campaign and may lead to even more when post-season play begins in April. If their positioning in the NAHL Midwest Division standings remain intact for when playoffs begin, the first place Wilderness and fourth place Jr. Blues will meet in a first round series.
Minnesota triumphed in their two prior meetings with Springfield. In games played Sept. 12-13, 2025, in Cloquet, the Wilderness won 4-2 and 6-2, respectively.
Last weekend, the Wilderness split their 2-game home series vs. the Kenai River Brown Bears, falling Friday (Feb. 20), 5-1, while bouncing back for 2-0 win Saturday (Feb. 21).
Meanwhile, the Jr. Blues did not play last weekend. In its last outing, Springfield hosted the Fairbanks Ice Dogs and was victorious on Feb. 13, 3-1, before falling 9-2 on Feb. 14.
Game times for the series this weekend will be 7:05 p.m., Friday, and 6:05 p.m., Saturday.
Wilderness Birthday: Feb. 24 – Owen Smith (20)
Media: Watch all games on NAHLTV.com.
Tale of the Tape
| Team | GF | GA | PP | PK |
| Wilderness | 200 (4.35 GFPG) | 115 (2.5 GAPG) | 35 for 175 (20%) | 31 for 175 (82.3%) |
| Springfield | 142 (3.16 GFPG) | 132 (2.9 GAPG) | 41 for 193 (21.2%) | 21 for 147 (85.7%) |
Midwest Division standings
| Place | Team | Games Played | Points | This week’s opponent (all games Fri./Sat. unless otherwise noted) |
| 1 | Wilderness | 46 | 70 | 2 @ Springfield |
| 2 | Fairbanks | 47 | 57 | 2 @ Kenai River |
| 3 | Wisconsin | 45 | 55 | Home/home vs. Janesville |
| 4 | Springfield | 45 | 53 | 2 vs. Wilderness |
| 5 | Anchorage | 46 | 49 | 2 vs. Chippewa |
| 6 | Janesville | 45 | 43 | Home/home vs. Wisconsin |
| 7 | Kenai River | 44 | 33 | 2 vs. Fairbanks |
| 8 | Chippewa | 44 | 19 | 2 @ Anchorage |