A weekend of rest could not keep the Minnesota Wilderness from hitting one of their primary goals for this season.
As the team was enjoying its first week without games since the Christmas holidays, Minnesota last night punched its ticket to the 2026 NAHL Robertson Cup playoffs after the Anchorage Wolverines fell in overtime to the Fairbanks Ice Dogs.
The Wilderness are the first team from the Midwest Division to clinch a post-season appearance. They currently occupy first place in the Midwest with a 35-9-4 record and hold an 11-point lead over second place Fairbanks. The top four teams in the division will qualify for the playoffs.
This will mark the fifth playoff appearance in the last six seasons for the Wilderness and 10th overall in franchise history. Minnesota barely missed the 2025 playoffs when it finished in fifth in the Midwest Division, two points behind the fourth-place Chippewa Steel.
The playoff format begins with the first two rounds featuring exclusively divisional opponents. The top seed and fourth seed will meet in a best-of-five semi-final series, as will the second and third seeds. The winners of the division semi-finals will then tangle in another best-of-five series for the division championship.
The winners of each of the NAHL’s four divisional championships will then meet at Fogerty Arena in Blaine, MN, for the league semi-finals and finals, set to begin May 15. The league semi-finals will feature a best-of-three format. The league finals will be staged between the two semi-final winners in a one-game winner-take-all contest on May 19.
The Wilderness’ division semi-final playoff series is expected to begin the weekend of April 17-18. Their opponent and seeding will be determined over the final weeks of the regular season.
Minnesota will get at least one home game in its first round series. If it finishes in first or second place in the division, it will host the first two games of the series.
Due to renovations scheduled to begin in April at Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Cloquet, the Wilderness will be playing their post-season home games at the St. Luke’s Sports and Event Center in Proctor, MN.