An injury-plagued Minnesota Wilderness struggled in generating offensive chances Friday night and fell 3-0 to the Wisconsin Windigo.
The Windigo notched 2nd period goals from Elliott Gulley and Logan Nickolaus and added a third period power play tally from Erick Comstock to secure the victory. Max Beckford turned aside 23 Wilderness shots for his first shutout of the season.
Adam Prokop took the loss for Minnesota stopping 23 of 26 Windigo shots.
On special teams, Minnesota was blanked on five power play chances, including 1:10 of 5-on-3 in the 2nd period. Wisconsin had four chances with the man-advantage and was able to score on one–capitalizing early on a five-minute major penalty 6:29 into the third period.
The Wilderness played without the services of three players who would normally be part of the 23-man lineup. Defenseman Ren Morque and forwards Oliver Stümpel and Adam Johnson were scratched from the lineup due to injury.
The loss drops Minnesota’s all-time regular season record in Eagle River to 0-4-1. The Wilderness’ lone road victory vs. the Windigo came in the 2023 Robertson Cup playoffs – a 1-0 win in game 1 of the Midwest Division Final.
Minnesota will get another chance to gain a victory at “The Dome” in Eagle River Saturday in game 2 of the weekend series, with puck drop set