A comeback effort which saw the Minnesota Wilderness rebound from a 3-goal deficit was not enough Friday night, as the Wilderness dropped the opener of its weekend series to the Janesville Jets, 5-4.
After Janesville’s Haden Kruse scored the game’s lone first period goal to take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission, the two squads embarked on a rollercoaster of a 2 nd frame. It began with Christian Venticinque scoring back-to-back tallies at the 2:30 and 6:30 marks to extend the Jets lead to 3-0.
The Wilderness (11-6-2) comeback began with Peteris Purmalis scoring the first of what would be two goals. The first came on the power play 8:15 into the 2 nd and was set up by Gustavs Ozolins and Daniel Astapovich.
That tally by Purmalis came at 11:44 into the second period and also marked the ending of the longest scoring drought in Wilderness franchise history. His goal was the team’s first since the 2 nd period of its game vs. Chippewa on Oct. 28, and snapped a stretch of 174 minutes and 28 seconds of scoreless hockey.
Meanwhile, a rebound of an Ozolins shot allowed Astapovich to make it 3-2 with 6:19 remaining. Purmalis then tied the game shortly after a face-off on a snipe from the bottom of the left circle with 3:36 left.
The Wilderness’ euphoria from erasing its deficit died before the period ended, however; as the Jets regained the lead when Nick Sajevic scored to make it 4-3 with less seven seconds left.
Max Wagener would then make it 5-3 5:39 into the third period. That ended up being the game-winner. An Ashton Dahms tally on the man-advantage with 8:14 remaining in regulation gave the Wilderness some hope of a second comeback effort, but it ended up being the game’s final goal.
Nick Erickson and Adam Prokop shared time in goal for Minnesota. Erickson started the game but was pulled after Janesville (9-8-2) made the score 3-0. Over 26:30, Erickson stopped 7 of 10 Janesville shots. Meanwhile, Prokop registered 31:26 between the pipes, and stopped 10 of 12. The loss dropped Prokop’s record to 2-2.
Janesville finished the game with a 29-22 shot advantage; Matthew Alberti earned the win in goal for the Jets.
Both teams ended up with multiple power play markers on seven chances—Minnesota scoring three times while Janesville lighting the lamp twice.
Now having lost three straight, the Wilderness will look to regain its winning form Saturday night. Its series finale vs. Janesville is set to begin at 7:05 p.m.