Throughout the course of a 60-game NAHL season, teams will occasionally lose games, and they are never pleasant for those teams. Occasionally there are losses that will sting harder than others.
Saturday night was one of those nights for the Minnesota Wilderness where they experienced the latter.
The Wilderness built a 3-0 lead around the midway point of the 2nd period, only to see the Wisconsin Windigo chip away at that lead to eventually tie the score in the final seconds and win the game in a shootout, 4-3.
Max Martin’s goal with five seconds left and Wisconsin’s goaltender pulled evened the score at 3-3, and, after a scoreless five-minute overtime, the Windigo’s Will Schumacher notched the only shootout tally to lead the home team to the victory.
Daniel Astopovich led the way for Minnesota with two goals. Both of his markers came in the 2nd period. He scored his first on the power play shortly after a skilled effort by Gustavs Ozolins to keep the puck in the Windigo zone. After a Windigo player tried to send the puck airborne to get it out of harm’s way, Ozolins knocked it down with his left glove hand at the blue line, then fired a shot that goaltender Max Beckford kicked to his right toward Astopovich who proceeded to bat it into the net out of mid-air with his backhand. That goal gave Minnesota a 2-0 lead at 8:24 of the middle frame.
Astopovich then gave his squad a 3-0 advantage when he and Joe Cesario converted on a 2-on-1 just a little over four minutes later.
A goal from Alessandro Lurati gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead and was the only tally of the first period. Lurati fired the initial shot that goaltender Max Beckford was able to save, only to see the rebound go to Peteris Purmarlis who quickly fed the puck back to Lurati at the left post for an easy tap-in, just 1:49 after the opening face-off.
Along with Martin’s tally with seconds left, Elliott Gulley and Jacob Jastrzebski also lit the lamp to aid Wisconsin’s comeback effort.
Loris Uberti suffered the loss in goal for the Wilderness in his first start since Sept. 30. The veteran from Martigney, SUI, rejected 35 of 38 Windigo shots, and allowed one goal on two opportunities in the shootout.
Max Beckford was the game’s winning goaltender after making 19 saves on 22 shots throughout regulation and overtime, plus stopping the Wilderness in three shootout rounds.
On the power play, Minnesota (16-8-3) finished one-for-three, while the Windigo (14-9-4) was scoreless on four chances.
The Wilderness will next return home for its final three home games before Christmas. Minnesota will host Fairbanks for a trio of games Dec. 8-10 at Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Cloquet.