After scoring only once Friday and falling to the Kenai River Brown Bears, the Minnesota Wilderness rallied in the third period Saturday to salvage two points in the 2-game weekend series in Cloquet.
Two goals from Anthony Capello were all Minnesota needed, as goaltender Ryan Gerlich shut the door for his second shutout of the season in a 2-0 victory in the series finale. That followed Friday’s 5-1 loss to the Brown Bears where their goaltender, Devin Rustlie, stole the show with a 28-save performance.
The series concludes a 6-game home stand for the first place Wilderness (33-9-4), who extended their lead on the NAHL’s Midwest Division to 13 points over second place Fairbanks.
Minnesota’s next four games will be in Springfield, IL. A 2-game series against the Springfield Jr. Blues is scheduled for Feb. 20-21, which will be followed by a weekend off, then the Wilderness travel to Springfield again for a pair of contests on March 6-7.
Friday: Kenai River 5, Wilderness 1
In the series opener, the Wilderness gave up more than four goals at home for the first time since Nov. 21.
Talan Blanck scored the lone Wilderness goal, with 3:02 left in third period to spoil a shutout bid for Kenai River goaltender Devin Rustlie. Blanck registered his 21st of the season on a rebound of a shot from Bryce Dahl.
The Brown Bears scored goals 5-on-5, on the power play and short-handed. Koen Burkholder lit the lamp twice in the first period, including one on the man-advantage. Michal Tkac then struck for a short-handed tally in the 2nd . In the third period, Kenai stretched its lead to 5-0 thanks to single goals from Anthony McIntosh and Braden Hansberger.
Rustlie stopped 28 of 29 shots to improve his record vs. the Wilderness to 2-0.
Valdemar Andersen suffered the loss for Minnesota with 20 saves on 25 Brown Bear shots.
Minnesota outshot Kenai River, 29-25.
On the power play, the Brown Bears went 1-for-2, while Minnesota failed to score on four opportunities.
Saturday: Wilderness 2, Kenai River 0
After a scoreless first two periods, Saturday, Anthony Capello finally ignited a red light 1:42 into the third. Bryce Dahl and Logan Nagle assisted on the goal. After retrieving a rebound, Dahl from the left corner in the offensive zone, slid the puck along the end boards to Nagle who was behind the Kenai net. While facing the boards, Nagle then dealt a no-look pass that sent the puck between his own legs to the front of net to Capello who one-timed a shot between goaltender Devin Rustlie and the right post to make it 1-0.
That gave Minnesota its first lead of the weekend and it would not take long before it was extended with another Capello tally.
The second goal resulted from a 2-on-1 that came about from a nifty defensive play at the Wilderness blue line. Defenseman Cayden Neice halted a Brown Bear rush when, just after the puck entered the Minnesota zone, Neice backhanded the puck to Talan Blanck who immediately moved toward the Brown Bear zone, turned to his right sharp enough to cause Kenai defenseman Michal Tkac to lose his footing and fall down, and then enter the Kenai end on a 2-one-1 with Capello. Blanck then delivered the puck to the left circle, where Capello then whipped the puck past a sprawling Rustlie. That goal
at the third period’s 5:41 mark gives Capello 10 on the season and was enough for the Wilderness to gain the victory.
Strong defensive coverage and timely saves from Ryan Gerlich allowed the Wilderness to hold off Kenai (16-27-1) over the remainder of the game. Gerlich turned aside all 25 Brown Bear shots for this 14th win on the season and 11 th straight game without a regulation loss.
Rustlie finished with 32 saves on 34 shots in the Kenai net.
Both teams were scoreless on the power play with each squad getting three chances.