After getting through all of October without a loss, the Minnesota Wilderness has started November without a goal.
A 3-0 home loss to the St. Cloud Norsemen Saturday night marked the second straight game the Wilderness was held off the scoreboard, following a 4-0 defeat on the road Friday night.
On Saturday, Minnesota (11-4-2) applied more offensive zone pressure and generated more chances than Friday, but were stymied by a stingy St. Cloud (7-4-6) defense and timely saves by Norsemen netminder Ryan Manzella. Manzella finished the game with 30 saves to post his second consecutive shutout.
Saturday’s game was also much more physical, and that led to one moment which gave fans their biggest reason to cheer. A fight between Wilderness defenseman Beau Janzig and St. Cloud forward Sangyeob Kim brought the crowd to its feet and was one big reason the game ended with a combined total of 71 penalty minutes.
Both teams received five power plays. While St. Cloud scored on only one, its other two goals came shortly after the Wilderness player’s penalty time expired.
Andrew Cumming opened the scoring in the first period just nine seconds after Oliver Band exited the box for a roughing minor. That was followed in the third period by a Hudson Blue tally that came just one second after a major roughing penalty to Peteris Purmalis expired. The Norsemen notched its power play goal 2:26 later when Lucca Munoz scored to make 3-0.
The Wilderness’ best opportunity to score came in the first period on its first power play chance. Minnesota maintained pressure in the St. Cloud zone for all but four seconds of the minor penalty, but failed to cash in.
In goal, Adam Prokop suffered his first loss of the season in four starts, stopping 23 of 26 shots.
The Wilderness outshot the Norsemen, 30-26.
Minnesota will get a chance to recover next weekend in a par of road games at the Janesville Jets. The weekend series opens Friday night at 7 p.m.