Two newcomers combined for five points Wednesday night in leading the Minnesota Wilderness to its best offensive performance of the season. In his first game with the squad, Alessandro Lurati registered one goal and two assists while Slava Tugolukov, playing in his third game, scored twice in a 6-2 triumph over the Chippewa Steel.
The Wilderness scored five times in the second period. After period 1 went scoreless, the two teams combined for seven goals in the middle frame, with Minnesota leading 5-2 going into the final period. The Wilderness added one more tally in the third.
Peteris Purmalis opened the scoring when he deflected in a rebound of a shot from Daniel Astapovich just 49 seconds into period 2.
Chippewa answered quickly with a rebound tally of its own from Jacob Ligi to make it 1-1 just 49 seconds later.
Then near the middle of the period, the Wilderness began a run of four goals over 5:46.
Tugolukov’s first goal kicked off the spree when he pounced on another rebound, this time off a shot from Beau Janzig at the 9:24 mark. Oliver Band also assisted on the marker, which was also Tugolukov’s first since joining the Wilderness last week.
A one-timer from Oliver Stümpel, set up by Lurati, made the score 3-1 at the 12:02 mark.
Lurati then scored on his own directly after stripping the puck away from Chippewa’s Tyler Lafferty directly in front of the Steel net. The native of Switzerland fired one shot that goaltender Ajay White managed to save, but then sent the rebound directly back to Lurati who found the back of the net on his second try to give Minnesota a 3-goal lead.
A wrist shot from Logan Nagle that just slipped beneath White’s pads didn’t just make the score 5-1, it also marked the end of the game for White as the Steel goaltender. Carter Wishart ended up playing the final 24:50 of the hockey game.
The Steel cut its deficit back to three thanks to a power play goal with 3:24 remaining in period 2. Talan Blanck lit the lamp with a shot from the bottom of the right circle that, much like Nagle’s goal, just snuck into the back of the net.
The Wilderness finished the game’s scoring with its own power play goal—which was Tugolukov’s second of the contest. Lurati and Ashton Dahms helped set up the marker that Tugolukov fired in from the right circle with 2:31 left in the third period.
Nick Erickson earned the win in net for the Wilderness, stopping 29 shots. Minnesota outshot the Steel 39-31.
For the Steel, White made 19 saves on 24 shots while Wishart denied 14 of 15.
On special teams, Minnesota deposited one goal on three power play chances, while Chippewa finished 1-for-2.
The victory is Minnesota’s fourth consecutive and strengthens its first place lead in the Midwest Division to six points.
The Wilderness next goes on the road for a 2-game series this weekend in Janesville, WI. The series vs. the Janesville Jets begins Friday night at 7:05 p.m.