Who: Minnesota Wilderness vs. Springfield Jr. Blues
When: April 4-5, 7:15 p.m. CDT both nights
Where: Northwoods Credit Union Arena, Cloquet, MN
The Lead: Wilderness begins a stretch of final four regular season games needing points in order to qualify for the playoffs.
Media: All of the action can be seen on nahltv.com.
Records: Springfield – 56 games, 19-29-8, 46 points; Minnesota – 56 games, 28-23-5, 61 points
Midwest Division Standings:
| Place | Team | Points | Games Played | This weekend’s opponent | Clinched playoffs |
| 1 | Wisconsin | 82 | 59 | 1 game vs. Chippewa | X |
| 2 | Anchorage | 80 | 56 | 2 games vs. Janesville | X |
| 3 | Janesville | 69 | 56 | 2 games @ Anchorage | X |
| 4 | Chippewa | 62 | 58 | 1 game @ Wisconsin | |
| 5 | Minnesota | 61 | 56 | 2 games vs. Springfield | |
| 6 | Fairbanks | 46 | 56 | 2 games vs. Kenai River | |
| 6 | Springfield | 46 | 56 | 2 games @ Wilderness | |
| 8 | Kenai River | 44 | 57 | 2 games @ Fairbanks |
Last Weekend:
- Springfield split a series at Chippewa—winning in OT on March 29, 1-0, then falling 3-0 on March 30.
- The Wilderness split with Wisconsin, winning 3-0 on March 29 before falling 2-1 (SO) on March 30.
Season series: The Wilderness and Jr. Blues tangled four previous times this season. On Sept. 29-30, the Wilderness won both games in a series in Proctor by scores of 4-3, with Saturday’s win ending in overtime. The Jr. Blues won the first meeting on Feb. 16, 4-2, while the Wilderness took Feb. 16’s rematch, 6-2.
Tale of the tape: Source: nahl.com
| Team | GF | GA | PP | PK | PIMs |
| Springfield | 139 | 208 | 12.6% | 79.4% | 849 |
| Wilderness | 147 | 158 | 18.9% | 85% | 742 |
Birthday: Aidan Shirey — April 6 (19)
Hot Blooded: Forward Nick Blood had his second 3-point weekend of March in the two games vs. Wisconsin. Blood generated two goals and one assist in Friday’s 3-0 win. This follows the weekend of March 9-10 at Anchorage when he also produced two goals and one assist. The 20-year old from Minnetrista, MN, has averaged just under a point-per-game since being acquired by the Wilderness from the Fairbanks Ice Dogs. With Minnesota, Blood has five goals and five assists over 11 games. When combined with his time with Fairbanks, Blood has played 37 games and generated 10 goals and 16 assists for 26 points.
Special Teams Pass Test: The Wilderness penalty kill encountered the NAHL’s best power play last weekend and did not blink. The Windigo came in with a league-best man-advantage that was successful more than 25 percent of the time, and had been 6 for 35 in the eight previous contests versus the Wilderness. Last weekend, Minnesota kept Wisconsin scoreless when the Windigo had an extra man over four opportunities. The Wilderness PK is third in the NAHL with an 85 percent kill rate. The Wilderness power play was also impressive vs. Wisconsin. Minnesota posted one goal with the man-advantage in each game of the 2-game series, going 2-for-4 over the weekend.
Puckstopper Prokop: Adam Prokop’s standout home weekend vs. Wisconsin may have seemed like déja-vu to some people. Prokop limited the Windigo to only one regulation goal over the two-game series—a feat made even more impressive considering the Wisconsin came into the series as the top scoring team in the NAHL at 217 goals. Prokop made 63 saves on 64 shots combined over the two games, plus four of six shots faced in Saturday’s shootout.
It’s the second series this season where Prokop was difficult for the Windigo to beat. The 19-year-old from Wausau, WI, was in net when the Wilderness swept Wisconsin in a 2-game series at home Nov. 17 and 18. That weekend, Prokop stopped 68 of 70 shots over the two games as the Wilderness won by scores of 4-1 and 2-1 in a shootout.
Cataldo with Big Weekend: Springfield benefited from solid goaltending in its weekend vs. Chippewa. J.J. Cataldo blanked the Steel in game making 30 saves in a 1-0 OT win. He followed that by another 30-save performance in a 3-0 loss. Cataldo is a 21-year-old veteran from Stuart, FL, and has committed to play division 1 college hockey at Army.