Like a Times Square ball drop, the Minnesota Wilderness brought the hammer down on the Chippewa Steel Thursday evening, outshooting the Steel 55-16 in a 4-2 victory at Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Cloquet.
In the franchise’s first ever New Year’s Day game, the penalty kill came up strong for the Wilderness, as they kept Chippewa scoreless on five chances, while scoring two short-handed goals.
Talan Blanck led with two tallies, while Robinson Djian and Noah Dziver each posted one goal and one assist.
The Steel stayed competitive thanks to the goaltending of Zach Stahl, who finished with 52 saves.
The win gives the Wilderness 20 on the season, which sets a franchise record for most wins before playing 30 games. Minnesota now boasts a 20-7-2 mark and leads the Midwest Division by three points over 2nd place Springfield.
Blanck broke through with the first goal of 2026 when he beat Stahl after skating in on a breakaway. That tally with 7:07 remaining in the first period was the veteran’s 12th of the season.
In the closing moments of the opening frame, Djian made the score 2-0 for the team’s second SHG. The Annecy, France, native notched his fifth of the season and first since returning from competing with Team France at the World Junior Championships with 17 seconds remaining in period 1. His goal came on a pass from Dziver as the pair skated in on a 2-on-1 break.
Dziver then scored on his own shortly after the beginning of the 2nd period. Dziver posted his 15th of the season after receiving a centering pass from Zach Homer 1:29 into this middle frame. Andrei Gudin also assisted on the marker which gave the Wilderness a 3-0 advantage.
John Carney gave Chippewa some life when he scored with 4:18 left in the 2nd period to cut the Wilderness lead to 3-1.
Minnesota responded with a vicious assault on the Chippewa net, putting 24 shots on goal in the 3rd period, compared to five for the Steel. Stahl remained stingy throughout the final 20 minutes, as the only goal the Wilderness could muster was on an empty net from Blanck with 1:52 left. The 13 th of the campaign for the native of Fond du Lac, WI, was assisted by Djian and Avery Anderson.
The Steel (5-22-2) closed out the scoring on a goal from Blake Graff with 50 seconds remaining in the game. Valdemar Andersen earned the victory in net for Minnesota, making 13 saves on 15 shots.
The Wilderness were held scoreless on four power play chances and failed on a penalty shot bid by Anthony Capello.
Minnesota has also matched the franchise record for most short-handed tallies in a single season. The Wilderness have now scored 8 times on the PK, which equals the efforts from 2018-19 and 2021-22.
Minnesota next hosts the Kenai River Brown Bears in a 2-game weekend series. The games scheduled for Friday and Saturday nights are scheduled to begin at 7:15 p.m.